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TO 

MY MOTHER 



We dwell on his statesmanship with pride, 
We love, of his life, its Christ-like side. 

His trusting faith in the All-Wise One, 
''It is God's way; His will be done/' 
His loving care of his faihtful wife, 
Ev'ry day of a busy life; 
His thoughtful word for the deadly foe, 
"Let no one harm him." Aye, we know 
He must have sat at the Maste/s feet. 
To speak forgiveness so complete, 
"Nearer, my God, to Thee," his prayer, 
"E'en though it be a cross," to bear. 
Comforting words for the faithful heart 
Who knew the hour had come to part. 
The "good-bye, all'* at life's^ ebbing tide, 
A message to our nation wide; 
No one forgotten — his great heart knew 
The grief his people must pass through. 
With sorrowing hearts we kneel and pray, 
"God's will be done, not ours," alway. 

We dwell on his statesmanship with pride. 
We love, of his life, its Christ-like side, 

M. Winchester Adams. 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS 

by 

President Roosevelt 



"As delivered at Canton, Ohio 
in 1903 




McKINLEY I\ THE LICRARV AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 
Reproduced by courtesy of Collier's Weekly. 



WILLIAM 
M^KINLLY 

A hiOoKArrilCAL STUDY 



BY 



A. ELWOOD CORNING 



With Introductory Address 
by President Roosevelt 




Illustrated 



BROADWAY PUBLISHING CO. 

NEIV YORK 

1907 



LiSRARY of CONGRESS 




Two Copies Received 
APR 29 1907 


M 


A Copyright Entry C*. ■ 
OLASS A KXc, No. 

/ 7*r^oU 

COPY B. j 



Copyri-lit, igoj 



An Address 

BY 

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. 



(Throughout our history, and, indeed, throughout history 
generally, it has been given to only a very few thrice-favored 
men to take so marked a lead in the crises faced by their 
several generations that thereafter each stands as the em- 
bodiment of the triumphant effort of his generation. Presi- 
dent McKinley was one of these men. 

If during the lifetime of a generation no crisis occurs 
sufficient to call out in marked manner the energies of the 
strongest leader, then, of course, the world does not and can 
not know of the existence of such a leader; and in conse- 
quence there are long periods in the history of every nation 
during which no man appears who leaves an indelible mark 
in history. If, on the other hand, the crisis is one so many- 
sided as to call for the development and exercise of many 
distinct attributes, it may be that more than one man will 
appear in order that the requirements shall be fully met. In 
the Revolution and in the period of constructive statesman- 
ship immediately following it, for our good fortune it befell 



INTRODUCTION 



US that the highest military and the highest civic attributes 
were embodied in Washington, and so in him we have one 
of the undying men of history — a great soldier; if possible, 
an even greater statesman, and, above all, a public servant 
whose lofty and disinterested patriotism rendered his power 
and ability — alike on fought fields and in council chambers 
— of the most far-reaching service to the republic. In the 
Civil War the two functions were divided, and Lincoln and 
Grant will stand forevermore with their names inscribed on 
the honor roll of those who have deserved well of mankind 
by saving to humanity a precious heritage. In similar fashion 
Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson each stands as the 
foremost representative of the great movement of his gen- 
eration, and their names symbolize to us their times and the 
hppes and aspirations of their times. 

i It was given to President McKinley to take the foremost 
place in our political life at a time when our country was 
brought face to face with problems more momentous than 
any whose solution we have ever attempted, save only in the 
Revolution and in the Civil War; and it was under his lead- 
ership that the nation solved these mighty problems aright. 
Therefore he shall stand in the eyes of history not merely 
as the first man of his generation, but as among the greatest 
figures in our national life, coming second only to the men 
of the two great crises in which the Union was founded and 
preserved. 

No man could carry through successfully such a task as 
President McKinley undertook unless trained by long years 
of effort for its performance. Knowledge of his fellow- 
citizens, ability to understand them, keen sympathy with even 
their innermost feelings, and yet power to lead them, to- 
gether with far-sighted sagacity and resolute belief both in 
the people and in their future — all these were needed in the 
man who headed the march of our people during the event- 



INTRODUCTION Hi 



ful years from 1896 to 1901. These were the qualities pos- 
sessed by McKinley, and developed by him throughout his 
whole history previous to assuming the Presidency. As a 
lad he had the inestimable privilege of serving, first in the 
ranks, and then as a commissioned officer, in the great war 
for national union, righteousness and grandeur; he was one 
of those whom a kindly Providence permitted to take part 
in a struggle which ennobled every man who fought therein. 
He who when little more than a boy had seen the grim 
steadfastness which after four years of giant struggle re- 
stored the Union and freed the slave was not thereafter to 
be daunted by danger or frightened out of his belief in the 
great destiny of our people. 

Some years after the war closed McKinley came to Con- 
gress, and rose, during a succession of terms, to leadership 
in his party in the lower house. He also became Governor 
of his native State, Ohio. During this varied service he 
received practical training of the kind most valuable to him 
when he became Chief Executive of the nation. To the high 
faith of his early years was added the capacity to realize his 
ideals, to work with his fellow-men at the same time that he 
led them. 

President McKinley's rise to greatness had in it nothing 
of the sudden, nothing of the unexpected or seemingly acci- 
dental. Throughout his long term of service in Congress 
there was a steady increase alike in his power of leadership 
and in the recognition of that power both by his associates in 
public life and by the public itself. Session after session his 
influence fh the House grew greater; his party antagonists 
grew to look upon him with constantly increasing respect; 
his party friends with constantly increasing faith and admira- 
tion. Eight years before he was nominated for President he 
was already considered a Presidential possibility. Four 
years before he was nominated only his own high sense of 



IV INTRODUCTION 



honor prevented his being made a formidable competitor of 
the chief upon whom the choice of the convention then actu- 
ally fell. In 1896 he was chosen because the great mass of 
his party knew him and believed in him, and regarded him 
as symbolizing their ideals, as representing their aspirations. 
In estimating the forces which brought about his nomination 
and election I do not undervalue that devoted personal friend- 
ship which he had the faculty to inspire in so marked a de- 
gree among the ablest and most influential leaders; this lead- 
ership was of immense consequence in bringing about the 
result; but, after all, the prime factor was the trust in and 
devotion to him felt by the great mass of men who had come 
to accept him as their recognized spokesman. In his nom- 
ination the national convention of a great party carried into 
effect in good faith the deliberate judgment of that party as 
to who its candidate should be. 

But even as a candidate President McKinley was far 
more than the candidate of a party, and as President he was 
in the broadest and fullest sense the President of all the 
people of all sections of the country. 

His first nomination came to him because of the qualities 
he had shown in healthy and open political leadership, the 
leadership which by word and deed impresses itself as a 
virile force for good upon the people at large, and which has 
nothing in common with mere intrigue or manipulation. But 
in 1896 the issue was fairly joined, chiefly upon a question 
which, as a party question, was entirely new, so that the old 
lines of political cleavage were in large part abandoned. All 
other issues sank in importance when compared with the 
vital need of keeping our financial system on the high and 
honorable plane imperatively demanded by our position as 
a great civilized power. As the champion of such a principle 
President McKinley received the support not only of hi« own 
party, but of hundreds of thousands of those to whom he had 



INTRODUCTION 



been politically opposed. He triumphed, and he made good , 
with scrupulous fidelity the promises upon which the cam- ; 
paign was won. We were at the time in a period of great * 
industrial depression, and it was promised for and on behalf 
of McKinley that if he were elected our financial system 
should not only be preserved unharmed, but improved, and 
our economic system shaped in accordance with those theo- 
ries which have always marked our periods of greatest pros- 
perity. The promises were kept, and following their keeping 
came the prosperity which we now enjoy. All that was fore- 
told concerning the well-being which would follow the elec- 
tion of McKinley has been justified by the event. 

But, as so often happens in our history, the President was 
forced to face questions other than those at issue at the time 
of his election. Within a year the situation in Cuba had be- 
come literally intolerable. President McKinley had fought 
too well in his youth, he knew too well at first hand what 
war really was, lightly to enter into a struggle. He sought 
by every honorable means to preserve peace, to avert war. 
He made every eflfort consistent with the national honor to 
bring about an amicable settlement of the Cuban difficulty. 
Then, when it became evident that these efforts were useless, 
that peace could not be honorably entertained, he devoted 
his strength to making the war as short and as decisive as pos- 
sible. It is needless to tell the result in detail. Suffice it 
to say that rarely indeed in history has a contest so far- 
reaching in the importance of its outcome been achieved 
with such ease. There followed a harder task. As a result 
of the war we came into possession of Cuba, Porto Rico and 
the Philippines. In each island the conditons were such that 
"we had to face problems entirely new to our national experi- 
ence, and, moreover, in each island or group of islands the 
problems differed radically from those presented in the 
Others. In Porto Rico the task was simple. The island 



Vi INTRODUCTION 



could not be independent. It became in all essentials a part 
of the Union. It has been given all the benefits of our eco- 
nomic and financial system. Its inhabitants have been given 
the highest individual liberty, while yet their government has 
been kept under the supervision of officials so well chosen 
that the island can be appealed to as affording a model for 
all such experiments in the future; and this result was main- 
ly owing to the admirable choice of instruments by President 
McKinley when he selected the governing officials. 

In Cuba, where we were pledged to give the island inde- 
pendence, the pledge was kept, not merely in letter, but in 
spirit. It would have been a betrayal of our duty to have 
given Cuba independence out of hand. President McKinley, 
with his usual singular sagacity in the choice of agents, se- 
lected in General Leonard Wood the man of all others best 
fit to bring the island through its uncertain period of prepa- 
ration for independence, and the result of his wisdom was 
shown when last May the island became in name and in fact 
a free republic, for it started with a better equipment and 
under more favorable conditions than had ever previously 
been the case with any Spanish-American commonwealth. 

Finally, in the Philippines, the problem was one of great 
complexity. There was an insurrectionary party claiming to 
represent the people of the islands, and putting forth their 
claim with a certain speciousness which deceived no small 
number of excellent men here at home, and which afforded 
to yet others a chance to arouse a factious party spirit against 
the President. Of course, looking back, it is now easy to see 
that it would have been both absurd and wicked to abandon 
the Philippine Archipelago and let the scores of different 
tribes — Christian, Mahometan and pagan, in every stage of 
semi-civilization and Asiatic barbarism — turn the islands into 
a welter of bloody savagery, with the absolute certainty that 
some strong power would have to step in and take posses- 



INTRODUCTION Vll 



sion. But though now it is easy enough to see that our duty 
was to stay in the islands, to put down the insurrection by 
force of arms, and then to establish freedom, giving civil 
government, it needed genuine statesmanship to see this and 
to act accordingly at the time of the first revolt. 

A weaker and less far-sighted man than President Mc- 
Kinley would have shrunk from a task very difficult in itself 
and certain to furnish occasion for attack and misrepresenta- 
tion no less than for honest understanding. But President 
McKinley never flinched. He refused to consider the thought 
of abandoning our duty in our new possessions. While sedu- 
lously endeavoring to act with the utmost humanity toward 
the insurrectionists, he never faltered in the determination 
to put them down by force of arms, alike for the sake of our 
own interest and honor, and for the sake of the interest of 
the islanders, and particularly of the great numbers of friend- 
ly natives, including those most highly civilized, for whom 
abandonment by us would have meant ruin and death. Again 
his policy was most amply vindicated. Peace has come to 
the islands, together with a greater measure of individual lib- 
erty and self-government than they have ever before known. 
All the tasks set us as a result of the war with Spain have 
so far been well and honorably accomplished, and as a result 
this nation stands higher than ever before among the nations 
of mankind. 

President McKinley's second campaign was fought mainly 
on the issue of approving what he had done in his first admin- 
istration, and specifically what he had done as regards these 
problems sprmging out of the war with Spain. The result 
was that the popular verdict in his favor was more over- 
whelming than it had been before. 

No other President in our history has seen high and honor- 
able effort crowned with more conspicuous personal success. 
No other President entered upon his second term feeling such 



VIU INTRODUCTION 



right to a profound and peaceful satisfaction. Then by a 
stroke of horror, so strange in its fantastic iniquity as to stand 
unique in the black annals of crime, he was struck down. 
The brave, strong, gentle heart was stilled forever, and word 
was brought to the woman who wept that she was to walk 
thenceforth alone in the shadow. The hideous infamy of the 
deed shocked the nation to its depths, for the man thus struck 
at was in a peculiar sense the champion of the plain people, 
in a peculiar sense the representative and the exponent of 
those ideals which, if we live up to them, will make, as they 
have largely made, our country a blessed refuge for all who 
strive to do right and to live their lives simply and well as 
light is given them. The nation was stunned, and the people 
mourned with a sense of bitter bereavement because they had 
lost a man whose heart beat for them as the heart of Lincoln 
once had beaten. We did right to mourn; for the loss was 
ours, not his. He died in the golden fulness of his triumph. 
He died victorious in that highest of all kinds of strife — 
the strife for an ampler, juster and more generous national 
life. For him the laurel; but woe for those whom he left 
behind; woe to the nation that lost him; and woe to man- 
kind that there should exist creatures so foul that one among 
them should strike at so noble a life. 

We are gathered together to-night to recall his memory, 
to pay our tribute of respect to the great chief and leader 
';vho fell in the harness, who was stricken down while his eyes 
were bright with "the light that tells of triumph tasted.'' Wc 
can honor him best by the way we show in actual deed that 
we have taken to heart the lessons of his life. We must 
strive to achieve, each in the measure that he can, something 
of the qualities which made President McKinley a leader of 
men, a mighty power for good — his strength, his courage, his 
courtesy and dignity, his sense of justice, his ever-present 
kindliness and regard for the rights of others. He won great- 



INTRODUCTION IX 



ness by meeting and solving the issues as they arose— not 
by shirking them — meeting them with wisdom, with the exer- 
cise of the most skilful and cautious judgment, but with fear- 
less resolution when the time of crisis came. He met each 
crisis on its own merits; he never sought excuse for shirking 
a task in the fact that it was different from the one he had 
expected to face. The long public career, which opened when 
as a boy he carried a musket in the ranks and closed when 
as a man in the prime of his intellectual strength he stood 
among the world's chief statesmen, came to what it was be- 
cause he treated each triumph as opening the road to fresh 
effort, not as an excuse for ceasing from effort. He under- 
took mighty tasks. Some of them he finished completely; 
others we must finish; and there remain yet others which he 
did not have to face, but which if we are worthy to be the in- 
heritors of his principles, we will in our turn face with the 
same resolution, the same sanity, the same unfaltering belief 
in the greatness of this country, and unfaltering championship 
of the rights of each and all of our people, which marked 
his high and splendid career, 



CHAPTERS 

1. Family Relations, Boyhood and Education' r 

2. A Soldier and His War Record 20 

3. Lawyer and Officeholder 52 

4. An Orator and His Speeches 78 

5. A President and His Cabinet. 109 

6. McKinley in the Home and as Commander- 

in-Chief 133 

7. McKinley's Diplomacy, Morals and Religion.. 160 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

McKinley in the White House Library. . . . 

Frontispiece 

PACK 

liirthplace lo ^ 

McKinley at the Age of Fifteen i8 -^ 

McKinley in Fraternity Costume 36 - 

AlcKinley in His Library, Canton, Ohio. ... 66 ^ 

A Characteristic Pose 84 / 

McKinley Delivering His First Inaugural 

Speech 106 • 

The War Cabinet 1 10 ' 

Home of McKinley, Canton, Ohio 134 

Katie McKinley, the President's Daughter. . 138 

McKinley on the Famous Front Porch 146 

Temporary Tomb of McKinley, Canton, 

Ohio 172 

Interior View First M. E. Church, Canton, 

Ohio 180' 

McKinlev National Memorial, Canton. Ohio 184/ 



WILLIAM Mckinley. 

A 

BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY 



WILLIAM Mckinley 

A Biographical Study 



CHAPTER I 

FAMILY RELATIONS, BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION 

IN an address delivered before the Phillips 
Exeter Academy, in 1893, Phillips Brooks 
said: ''Since the noblest life on earth 
is always human life, the literature which 
deals with human life must always be the no- 
blest literature. And since the individual hu- 
man life must always have a distinctness and 
interest which cannot belong to any of the 
groups of human lives, biography must always 
have a charm which no other kind of history 
can rival. I believe fully that the intrinsic 
life of any human being is so interesting that 
if it can be simply and sympathetically put in 
words, it will be legitimately interesting to 
other men.'* 

The scope and aim of this biography is a 



William McKinley 



portrayal of William McKinley, not so much 
in an historical sense as in that of his personal- 
ity. I will not try to be conventional. I aim 
to sketch the man as he really was; what he 
was among his friends; what he was in the 
hours of work as well as in the hours of leis- 
ure; what he said himself and what his close 
associates said of him. In short, I aim to 
speak the truth, while endeavoring to bring 
in important events and throw sidelights on 
his character that may be interesting, without 
giving a complete and connected biography of 
the man. 

No one is more cognizant than the author 
of the fact that the time has not come to judge 
impartially and accurately the acts of William 
McKinley as a statesman. The main details 
of his career have been rehearsed so often that 
they are familiarly known to the reading pub- 
lic, but as to the meaning and significance of 
his life we do not know where history will 
place him. We are too near his time to right- 
ly determine his full stature. But it is be- 
lieved that with the passing seasons, when the 
secret workings of his life have been revealed, 
that his memory will shine with brighter lustre 
and his fame will be more radiant than during 
the years he dwelt among us. This biography 
then is not only a series of sketches, but an ap- 
preciation of the character of William McKin- 
ley. What we say, then, of his character and 



'A Biographical Study 



his kindness of heart we say without fear of 
challenge. 



Few men have been so universally beloved 
as was William McKinley. Senator George 
F. Hoar, of Massachusetts, a man who differed 
with McKinley as to his Philippine policy, said 
in his autobiography that ''No man has lived 
in this country since Daniel Webster died, save 
McKinley alone, who had so large a number 
of devoted friends and admirers in all parts of 
the country." 

McKinley was brilliant as a statesman and 
uniformly wise as a ruler. But it can be said 
with deliberate judgment that the most strik- 
ing feature of his whole life was his warm, 
genial and generous nature. The last word 
can never be said, wrote a well-known writer, 
of such a man. To know William McKinley 
was to love him. His influence in both public 
and private life was of the loftiest and most 
benignant sort. 

Every nation and clime produce characters 
which cannot perish from human memory. 
They inbreed within the soul of man, passions 
of love, honor and fidelity. They command 
our respect and admiration. We look upon 
them with a source of joy and pride, when we 
note what they were and what they accom- 
plished for the good of humanity. They in- 
carnated the spirit of the times in which they 
lived, and they were the embodiment of the 



1 



William McKinley 



mental and moral forces of their period. Such 
was Washington at the beginning of American 
history. Such was Lincoln during the great- 
est crisis which ever befell our country. And 
such was McKinley during the third period of 
moment in the history of our nation. 

McKinley's rise from obscurity to fame and 
power was no strange coincidence. The his- 
tory of America since her inception has been 
full of such records. McKinley's was only 
one of the many. We have our Lincolns, our 
Garfields, our Greeleys. 

The successes of McKinley's life, gained dur- 
ing hard years of unceasing toil, were steps of 
evolution. Like Abraham Lincoln, the higher 
he rose the more modest, the more serene, the 
more gentle and the more kindly in his deal- 
ings with his fellow-men he became. Thus, 
when he assumed the Presidency, he was equal 
to all the cares and responsibilities that the high 
office embodied. He had the advantage of 
good blood; for his ancestors were sturdy, in- 
dustrious, high-minded, public-spirited and fru- 
gal. They did not belong to the royal class of 
Scotland, but were of a more substantial type, 
which eschewed that land and sought a larger 
freedom in the New World. Owing to some 
of the inaccurate data which has been published 
concerning President McKinley's genealogy, I 
will quote from a sketch, which may be relied 



'A Biographical Study 



upon as being correct, prepared by the Rev. A. 
Stapleton. 

''The ancestors of President McKinley be- 
longed to that sturdy race of people called the 
Scotch-Irish, so called because in 1607 King 
James I. located a large number of Scots in the 
northern part of Ireland on lands from which 
the Irish had been evicted. These settlements 
were gradually augmented by immigration un- 
til eventually the Scotch-Irish element predom- 
inated in this region. They were stanch Pres- 
byterians in faith, and in course of time devel- 
oped traits and peculiarities so marked as to 
stamp them as almost a distinct race. In 
course of time this noble people were overtaken 
by many hardships, such as the successive fail- 
ure of crops, besides very unsatisfactory civil 
and religious conditions. Their only source 
of relief was in emigration to America, in 
which they were encouraged by agents of the 
American colonies. After 171 5 the emigra- 
tion became very extensive, the chief port of 
arrival being New Castle, on the Delaware, be- 
low Philadelphia. The Scotch-Irish being 
citizens of the British realm, their arrival is 
not a matter of record, that of the Germans, 
Swiss, Dutch, etc., who are designated as for- 
eigners in the colonial records, and were re- 
quired to subscribe to an oath of allegiance 
upon arrival, besides a subsequent naturaliza- 
tion. Hence it follows that citizens of the 



(5 William McKinley 

realm are more difficult to identify than for- 
eigners by the historian. Our only recourse 
is in tax lists, land warrants, court records, etc. 

"In the case of President McKinley we have 
an undisputed record to his great-grandfather, 
David McKinley. We know that he was a 
Revolutionary soldier, that he was born in 
York County, Pa., that he removed to West- 
moreland County after the Revolution, and in 
1814 to Ohio, where he died. In the cem- 
etery of the Chatfield Lutheran Church, in 
Crawford County, Ohio, may be seen two 
modest granite markers with the following in- 
scription : 

" *David McKinley, Revolutionary soldier, 
born, 1755; died, 1840, and Hannah C. Rose, 
born, 1757; died, 1840.* 

"David McKinley was the father of James, 
born September 19, 1783; married Mary Rose, 
of Mercer County, Pa., and removed thence to 
Chatfield, where he purchased a farm, on 
which he died. He was the father of William 
McKinley, Sr., born in 1807, and died in Can- 
ton, Ohio, in 1892. The latter was the father 
of President McKinley. Hannah C. Rose, 
buried by the side of David McKinley, was the 
great-grandmother of the President. 

"For the history of the family prior to Da- 
vid, the soldier, we must rely on the court- 
house records at Lancaster, and York, Pa. 
From various documents and entries we think 



'A Biographical Study 



the evidence incontrovertible that David Mc- 
Kinley, the head of the clan McKinley in 
America, landed at New Castle, and located in 
(now) Chanceford Township, York County, 
Pa., in 1743. At that time he was well along in 
life. He was accompanied by his wife, Esther, 
and three sons, John, David, Stephen and a 
daughter, Mary. There are frequent references 
to these sons in the county archives. The im- 
migrant was a weaver by trade, but, like all 
thrifty artisans of that day, he secured a good 
homestead. It is possible, but not probable, 
that he arrived in the province earlier than 
1743, but in this year his name first appeared 
on the records in a warrant for 316 acres of 
land on a beautiful elevation, overlooking the 
Susquehanna River in the distance. 

''That he was a man of enterprise is shown 
in the fact that in 1749 he circulated a petition 
for a public highway, which he also presented 
to Court. The following year he was made 
supervisor, and doubtless had the task imposed 
on himself to engineer his road to completion. 
His name occurs frequently in the most honor- 
able way, showing him to have been a man of 
unusual probity and worth as a citizen. 

"David McKinley, the immigrant, died in- 
testate in 1757, leaving his wife and children 
as already named. His daughter was inter- 
married with Samuel Gordon. The settlement 
of the estate shows personal prosperity to the 



8 William McKinley 

value of £220, or $1,100, besides the planta- 
tion, which was divided. Later, however, the 
son John (who, with his mother, was the ex- 
ecutor) purchased the entire estate. 

*This leads us to the consideration of the 
second generation, viz., John McKinley, eldest 
son of the immigrant. Before entering upon 
details, we here throw out the precautionary 
statement that the names McKinley and Mc- 
Ginley are both contemporaneous and inter- 
changeable in our early records, owing to the 
carelessness of scribes. They were, however, 
separate families in York County. The Mc- 
Ginleys proper came from James McGinley, 
who died in York County in 1755, leaving an 
only son, John. No relationship is known to 
have existed between the families, although 
remotely it might have been the case. The 
President's ancestors, so far as we have ascer- 
tained, always wrote their name as now. 

^'Resuming our narrative of the McKinleys; 
John, son of the immigrant, was born about 
1728, and in his day was one of the foremost 
men of York County. He became a large 
land-owner, and frequently figures in impor- 
tant business transactions. When hostilities 
broke out with the Mother Country he stanchly 
supported the revolution, and was made Wag- 
on Master for Chanceford Township by the 
Committee of Safety. He died on his estate 
February 18, 1779, being survived by his 



'A Biographical Study 



widow, Margaret, an only son, David, great- 
grandfather of the President, and daughters, 
Esther, Jean, EHzabeth and Susan. The 
widow subsequently married Thomas McCul- 
loch. She died in the winter of 1781. 

''This leads us down to David McKinley, 
grandson of the emigrant and great-grand- 
father of the President. He was born on the 
old homestead in Chancefield Township, May 
16, 1755. In 1776 he enlisted in Captain 
Reed's Company of Ferrymen in the War of 
the Revolution. This was the Seventh Com- 
pany of the Eighth Battalion of York County 
Militia. The Militia-men, it should be remem- 
bered, were called out in emergencies, and were 
drafted in sections for active service, making 
what were then called tours of service. In this 
way nearly all the Militia of Pennsylvania saw 
many tours of service, much hard fighting and 
the most perilous kind of military life." 

This David McKinley, who was a Revolu- 
tionary soldier, was not a distinguished officer, 
but came from that grand class of privates. 
On the President's grandmother's side he came 
from equally good stock. Mary Rose, who 
married James McKinley, the second, came 
from Holland, where her ancestors had fled 
from religious persecution in England. An- 
drew Rose was the first to see these shores. 
He came over with William Penn, and became 
one of the representatives of the thirteen Colo- 



lo William McKinley 

nies prior to the Revolutionary War. His son, 
Andrew, was the father of Mary Rose, the 
mother of WilHam McKinley, the father of 
the President. 

In the year 1829, at New Lisbon, Ohio, Will- 
iam McKinley, Sr., married Nancy Campbell 
Allison, whose descendants came from Eng- 
land and settled in Virginia. Mrs. William 
McKinley, Sr.'s, branch, however, emigrated 
to Pennsylvania. Her grandfather not only 
fought in the American Revolution, but made 
bullets and cannon. William McKinley, Sr., 
took his wife to the small town of Fairfield, 
Ohio, in order that he might be near his iron 
foundry, located in New Wilmington. For 
nearly twenty years he was engaged in this 
business. From Fairfield they moved to Niles, 
Trumbull County, another small town. In this 
town, in a plain, wooden dwelling, close to the 
road, adjourning a field, as it has been de- 
scribed, the William McKinley was born 
on January 29, 1843. His birthplace was 
standing until the year 1895, although previ- 
ous to that period the ground floor had been 
converted into a store. In 1896, when Mc- 
Kinley was running for the Presidency, the 
house was divided and part of it removed. 
Some of the wood of the building at this time 
was made into canes and used in the campaign 
for parade purposes. 

William was the seventh child, and after him 



A Biographical Study it 

came a boy and a girl. His parents were not 
what would be called well-to-do people, but 
they were by no means as poor as Lincoln's 
family. In his youth the boy William was a 
manly little fellow. He possessed pluck, de- 
termination and will power, and, it is said, 
used them right. Although inclined to be 
studious and thoughtful, he was a real boy, 
nevertheless, enjoyed skating, fishing and 
sports of all kinds. As to his skating, an old 
chum has said : *'He couldn't do much at fan- 
cy figures, but he could beat lots of the boys 
when it come to a straight-out race. He'd 
swing along like a steam engine, often with a 
stick in both hands and tippet flying from 
around his neck and under his arms." 

William was very popular with the rest of 
the boys; they liked him and sought his com- 
panionship. 

A story is told of his fishing that shows his 
patience. It is said that he would sit for hours 
waiting for a bite. One day he came home 
after dark, and his mother inquired where he 
had been. "I was fishing, mother," he replied. 

^'Fishing?" said his mother. "I don't see 
any fish." 

"I didn't catch any to-day. But I located 
a big fellow, and I'll get him to-morrow." 

McKinley was blessed with a good, Chris- 
tian mother. She was a hard worker, but she 
found time to help her children develop noble 



12 William McKinley 

characteristics and teach them to be thoughtful 
for others. In his early days we find him 
leading the same kind of a life as the boys of 
his neighborhood. He said of himself on one 
occasion that "he did anything a boy would do 
around the house ; that money was very scarce, 
and one had to work hard for what little money 
one had." 

A gentleman well acquainted with the fam- 
ily said, in speaking of McKinley's boyhood 
days: "I can still see him in my mind's eye, 
the bright little chap in swaddling clothes that 
I used to give hobby-horse rides on my knee. 
Little Willie was an exceptionally bright child, 
and I always predicted great things for him, 
but little did I then dream that he would be- 
come the Chief Magistrate of the greatest gov- 
ernment on earth. I never heard him say an 
unkind word to his parents. He was a good 
boy to his mother." 

And this statement is borne out by the words 
of his own mother when her son became Presi- 
dent. **William was always a good boy. I 
could always depend upon him. He never 
gave me a cross word, and I don^t believe he 
ever told me a lie. I'm glad that he is Presi- 
dent, for his sake, even though I did used to 
think he'd make a fine minister." 

On the day of his inauguration no one was 
happier than the little mother who had come 
on from Canton to see her son made President 



' A Biographical Study 13 

of the United States. As McKinley took the 
oath of office the tears that fell from her eyes 
were tears of pride and joy. 

She remained a short time at the White 
House, and then went back to her modest little 
home in Ohio. Every day she received a let- 
ter from *'my William," as she called him, and 
her only regret was that her husband had not 
lived to see their son made President. 

During the days of stress and worry and re- 
sponsibility these letters never failed to go 
from the White House to the little woman in 
Canton, but one day came when the President 
was summoned to the bedside of his dying 
mother. There he sat, hour after hour, until 
the end came, on December 12th, 1897. He 
and his brother Abner made the arrangements 
for the funeral, and then, after all was over, 
he returned to Washington, a sad and heavy- 
hearted man. When he was running for the 
Presidency he once granted an interview to a 
youth, who asked: "Can a boy neglect his 
mother and get along and be great, Mr. Mc- 
Kinley?" "Harry," said the President-elect, 
"a boy should always be good to his mother, 
and do everything in the world he can and love 
her. He must comfort her, be kind and gentle 
to her, and not only do all he can to make her 
happy, but he should make opportunities to 
try and do everything he can do. A boy can- 
not expect to succeed if he isn't good to his 



14 William McKinley 

mother. A boy should do all the work for her, 
because when the time comes that she has got 
to leave for a greater world than this, and if 
he has done what is right towards her, all the 
time, then when the time comes for her to go 
he will never regret the good he has done 
towards her." 

William McKinley learned to read at an 
early age. He was taught by his older sis- 
ters and brothers before he went to school. 
At the age of six he was sent to the village 
school at Niles. Here he was instructed in the 
first rudiments of education. The father wish- 
ing to provide the best training for his chil- 
dren, decided that Niles was too small a place ; 
that it was deficient in many ways. He there- 
fore moved his family to Poland when William 
was nine years old. This town was an agri- 
cultural and mining village, situated about 
eight miles south from the city of Youngstown. 
It is said that Poland never grew much, for it 
was too near Youngstown, but it was a patri- 
otic little village, for ''there were always more 
volunteers than Poland's quota justified." 

When McKinley's time was not occupied in 
study or at work doing the chores around the 
house, he would be listening to the men of the 
neighborhood talk politics and discuss State 
rights, and very often would he go over to 
Youngstown to hear some fine speaker who 
was scheduled to address a political meeting. 



A Biographical Study 15 

After hearing some of these big politicians, as 
they were called, William and the other school- 
boys thought they would like to learn how to 
speak, so McKinley said, "I'll tell you what 
we can do." "What?" repHed the boys. "We 
can organize a debating society." The subject 
was suggested to others, and every one seemed 
to fall in with the idea. The society was 
formed. It was known as the "Everett Soci- 
ety," in honor of Edward Everett. 

William McKinley became its first president, 
and the subjects that were taken up were 
most interesting. The members soon saved 
money enough to buy a carpet for the floor of 
the hall, and at the first meeting after the car- 
pet had been placed down a rainstorm came up. 
The members came, however, but did not dare 
to venture inside the room with their muddy 
feet. One boy suggested that they all take off 
their shoes. This was done at once, and the 
president took the chair and the debate pro- 
ceeded. 

Even as a child McKinley had a good deal 
of sentiment. A lady in Ohio is in possession 
of a souvenir given her by Mr. McKinley, of 
which she is very fond. It is a stanza written 
when he was only twelve years old. She was 
a schoolgirl at the time : 



1 6 William McKinley 

**Friend Lucy : 

"A heart of heavenly purity 
Is laid within thy breast, 
And ever for the weary soul 
It breathes some time of rest. 

"Nov. I2th, 1855, Poland, Ohio. 

"Wm. McKinley." 

John Hay, in his address on McKinley be- 
fore the two houses of Congress, said : 

"He grew up in the company of boys like 
himself, wholesome, honest, self-respecting. 
They looked down on nobody; they never felt 
it possible they could be looked down upon. 
Their houses were the houses of probity, piety, 
patriotism. They learned in the admirable 
school readers of fifty years ago the lessons of 
heroic and splendid life which have come down 
from the past. They read in their weekly 
newspapers the story of the world's progress, 
in which they were eager to take part, and of 
the sins and wrongs of civilization with which 
they burned to do battle. It was a serious and 
thoughtful time. The boys of that day felt 
dimly, but deeply, that days of sharp struggle 
and high achievement were before them. They 
looked at life with the wondering yet resolute 
eyes of a young esquire in his vigil of arms. 
They felt a time was coming when to them 
should be addressed the stern admonition of 



^ Biographical Study i^ 



the apostle : "Quit you like men ; be strong." 
The lessons of honesty, of faithfulness and 
of gentleness which William McKinley learned 
from his Christian mother were abiding ele- 
ments of character during his entire life. In 
later years President McKinley often said that 
his mother was an inspiration to him. Mr. 
McKinley, Sr., had been a great reader, and 
would often discuss the questions of the day 
with his children, and doubtless Wiliam, Jr., 
inherited his love of reading. 

When the McKinley family moved to Po- 
land, William entered the Academy. From 
the Academy he was sent to Allegheny Col- 
lege, at Meadville, Pa. He had done so well 
at school that when he was examined for ad- 
mission he was placed in the junior class. This 
cut off one year of the regular course, and it 
helped young McKinley greatly, for he knew 
the sacrifices of his parents, so that he might 
secure a good education. He therefore pur- 
sued his work in such zealous fashion that be- 
fore he had been at college a year his health 
broke down, and he was compelled to discon- 
tinue his studies. It is said that he expected 
to return to school, but just at that time wages 
fell, throwing many out of employment. The 
McKinleys suffered with the rest, although the 
father still retained his position as iron manu- 
facturer. Young McKinley, seeing all hopes 



1 8 William McKinley 



of returning to college gone, then sought em- 
ployment. 

He applied for the position of teacher at the 
Kerr district school and secured the place. 
The school was about two and a half miles 
from his home, and McKinley used to walk 
over in the morning and back again in the 
afternoon. Some of the students were quite 
as old as the young instructor, but he got along 
admirably. The salary was not large, only 
$25 a month, but "it was better than nothing." 
It was the custom for the teacher to ''board 
round" with the directors of the school, but he 
lived at home principally. 

After the school term closed young McKin- 
ley became assistant postmaster in the Poland 
post office, and here is where we find him when 
Fort Sumter was fired on. The news of Fort 
Sumter's surrender stirred McKinley, for "the 
fighting blood of many generations flowed in 
his veins." 

To speak again of his schooling, it may be 
said that he was diligent and faithful, though 
perhaps not a brilliant scholar. He loved to 
gain a general knowledge. In later years he" 
took private lessons in Greek and Hebrew. 
To him education meant the secret of success. 
Speaking once of his student days, he said : 

*'Exact knowledge is the requirement of the 
hour. You will be crippled without it. Luck 
will not last. It may help you once, but you 




WILLIAM McKINLEY AT THE AGE OF FIFTEEN 
Reproduced by courtesy of Collier's Weekly. 



"A Biographical Study 19 

cannot count on it. Labor is the only key to 
opportunity." 

His life was full of hours of study and 
thought. To him a life well spent meant 
ceaseless activity, a higher ideal for self and a 
striving to uplift our fellow-men. By this 
splendid discipline McKinley created a mind 
that was alert, clear, sagacious and comprehen- 
sive. 

His years of training were everything in a 
life that was destined to play so important a 
part in the world's work. The superstructure 
that he built in those early days helped in a 
marked degree toward the life of the later full- 
grown man of stainless honor, of wholl'-heart- 
ed friendliness and kindliness, *'in its simplicity 
sublime." 



CHAPTER II 

A SOLDIER AND HIS WAR RECORD 

THE most inspiring feature of the world's 
civilization is character. It is the com- 
posite element of the best traditions of 
the human race. But in a literal sense, 
character means more than goodness, purity 
and honesty; it means bravery and courage as 
well. 

The stern admonition of the apostle when he 
said, ''Quit you like men ; be strong," meant all 
these; strong in body, strong in uprightness, 
strong in faith and strong when duty calls. 

It is very difficult for us to-day to realize the 
vital dissensions which prevailed about the 
days of '6i, when the guns of Fort Moultrie 
thundered forth their attack upon Fort Sum- 
ter. In an instant, as it were, a million men 
stood eager to sacrifice themselves, their homes 
and kindred for duty's sake; ready to die, if 
need be, for the saving of their country. Love 
of country was deeply written in the hearts of 
the Boys in Blue and the Boys in Grey. This 
manifestation of heroism and devotion has 
never been equalled in the world's history, for 
brother was arrayed against brother. 



^A Biographical Study 2ii 

As Lincoln said, ''the prayers of both could 
not be answered." But to-day all prejudices 
have mellowed and softened into real bonds of 
kinship. A reunited country is the fruit that 
was born from the mighty conflict. We glory 
in the fact that human slavery was swept for- 
ever from American soil, and that a mighty 
nation was again restored to itself, "save for 
the thousands who were left lying dead on the 
field of honor!" 

William McKinley was the kind of youth 
ioT whom war had little attraction. But when 
the call came he was not found wanting. The 
love of liberty burned in his heart. It has been 
said that it was to him a Crusade for liberty, 
and, like a knight of the Holy Cross, he en- 
listed in the ranks. 

William McKinley's perhaps greatest desire 
when he became President was, like Lincoln's, 
to know no North, no South, no East, no West. 
And with candor, it may be said, that no Pres- 
ident since Lincoln did so much to reunite the 
South again into the friendly counsels of the 
nation. 

At Atlanta, Ga., he said : "The time has 
now come in the evolution of sentiment and 
feeling under the Providence of God when in 
the spirit of fraternity we should share with 
you in the care of the graves of the Confed- 
erate soldiers. 

"The cordial feeling now happily existing 



.22 William McKinley 

between the North and the South prompts this 
gracious act, and if it needs further justifica- 
tion, it is found in the gallant loyalty to the 
Union and the Flag, so conspicuously shown in 
the year just past by the sons and grandsons 
of these heroic dead." 

He concluded that remarkable speech with 
these eloquent words : 

''Reunited! One Country again and one 
Country forever! Proclaim it from the press 
and pulpit, teach it in the schools, write it 
across the skies. The world sees and feels it, 
it cheers every heart in North and South, and 
brightens the life of every American home. 
Let nothing ever stain it again. At peace with 
all the world and with each other. What can 
-Stand in the pathway of our peace and pros- 
perity?'' 

One day, in the early part of June, 1861, a 
meeting was called at the old Sparrow Tavern 
in the town of Poland, to consider the great 
question of the hour. 

There was speechmaking and beating of 
drums, and a general appeal for volunteers to 
enlist to protect the flag. McKinley with the 
rest of the young men of Poland walked over 
to the Tavern. The hall was decorated with 
red, white and blue. There was a recruiting 
agent, and he was speaking to the gathering 
and urging enlistment in the ser\'ice. 

"Our country's flag has been fired upon," he 



"A Biographical Study 23 



said, as he pointed to the starry banner above 
his head. "It has been trailed in the dust by 
those who should have cherished and loved it. 
And for what? That this free government 
may keep a race in the bondage of Slavery! 
Who will be the first to defend the glorious 
Stars and Stripes?" "I expect to go," Mc- 
Kinley said, *'but wish first to consult my 
mother," which he did. After much persua- 
sion, the mother consented. Back to the old 
Tavern he went, and proudly signed his name 
on the list of volunteers. 

On June 7th, 1861, the volunteers gathered 
on the village green, ready to start for Youngs- 
town, thence to Columbus, the State capital. 
The whole town came out to bid them good- 
by. It was a holiday in Poland, and some that 
marched away that day never returned. 

McKinley's mother was there, and with a 
**God bless you, my boy !" she stood in tears as 
the last of the volunteers faded from sight. 
Upon reaching Columbus the recruits marched 
to Camp Chase, a beautiful spot near the Cap- 
ital. Here it was that each recruit was ex- 
amined physically by General John C. Fremont, 
known as the ''Pathfinder of the West." 

When young McKinley's turn came he was 
a bit anxious as to the result. The General 
looked him over, thumped on his chest, and re- 
marked, ''You'll do." Naturally, the young 
man was very much pleased as to the outcome, 



24 William McKinley 

for it is said he returned to his fellows full of 
smiles, at which they remarked : "I guess 
you're goinsf, Will. He didn't turn you down, 
. did he?" "No," said McKinley, "he said I'd 
I do. And I'm going to do the very best I can." 
In those days some thought the war would 
be short, while others anticipated a long strug- 
gle. But no one expected it to last four years. 
McKinley fully realized the importance of the 
conflict, and expected that time and hard fight- 
ing alone would cement the opposing forces. 

The Poland recruits became Company E of 
the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. It 
was mustered into service for a period of three 
years on June ii, 1861. And in this regiment 
McKinley belonged to that grand classification 
known as privates. 

McKinley in later life seldom spoke of his 
war record, but one day he was talking with 
a friend in the Governor's office at Columbfis, 
and the subject of the war came up. The 
friend spoke of the Governor's enlistment and 
service in that conflict. Mr. McKinley leaned 
back in his chair, and with the pleasant mem- 
ories of those days long passed said : 

*'I always look back with pleasure upon those 
fourteen months during which I served in the 
ranks. They taught me a great deal. I was 
but a schoolboy when I went into the army, 
and that first year was a formative period in 
my life, during which I learned much of men 



^A Biographical Study 25 , 

J 



and facts. I have always been glad that I en- 
tered the service as a private, and served those 
months in that capacity." 

The Twenty-third Ohio was one of the most 
conspicuous and celebrated in that it had 
among its ranks and its officers men who dur- 
ing their lifetime became famous in different 
lines. 

The first Colonel of the regiment was Will- 
iam S. Rosecrans, a graduate of the Military 
Academy, and one that rose to be a well-known 
general of the Union army. He was after the 
war an officer of high rank in the Regular 
Army. The first Lieutenant-Colonel of the 
regiment was Stanley Matthews, who, after 
he retired from service, became United States 
Senator from Ohio, and still later was appoint- 
ed an Associate Justice of the United States 
Supreme Court. 

Its first Major was Rutherford B. Hayes, 
who won rapid promotion for his gallantry and 
steadfastness. He became a general, and in 
1876 was chosen President of the United 
States. The regiment also produced others 
that rose to eminence and distinction. 

The statistics of the regiment show that from 
the time of its formation until it was mustered 
out of service, in 1865, there were 2,230 men 
enrolled as members. And it goes on to state 
t'hat 5 officers and 154 men were killed or died 
from wounds, and in all there were 567 who 



26 JVilliam McKitilcv 



were killed or wounded. Thirty-nine of that 
nnniK^r died in C\^n federate prisons and from 
disease, result in*;" from inclement weather and 
hardships. 

Like Mayes and Gartield. his noted prede- 
cessors in army hfe, MeKinley was always ob- 
servant, persistent and ardently desirous of do- 
ing- the rii^ht thin^- and doinj;- it well. He was 
ever on hand and ready to perform any service 
that came within his reach. President Hayes 
on one occasion, when speakinq^ of McKinley's 
connection with the Twenty-third Ohio, saiil : 

**At once it was found that he had unusual 
character for the mere business of war. There 
is a quartermaster's department in every regi- 
ment, in every brigade, in every division, in 
every army. Young as he was. he soon found 
that in business, in executive ability, young Mc- 
Kinley was a man of rare capacity, of utuisual 
and unsurpassed sag-acity : especially for a hoy 
of his age. When battles were fought or ser- 
vice was to be performed in warlike things, he 
always took his place. The night was never 
too dark : the weather w'as never too cold ; there 
was no sleet or storm or hail or snow or rain 
that was in the way of his prompt and efhcient 
performance of every duty. When I became 
commander of the regiment he scx^n came to be 
on my statY, where he remained for one or two 
years, so that I did literally and in fact know 
iiim like a book and love him like a brother." 



^A Ijiographkai Study 2J 



Xy\xr\n\r the time that young McKinley was 
on General Hayes's stafY they learned tr^ love 
each other like brothers. And it is stated that 
the friendship continued until death calle^l ex- 
lYesident Hayes. 

Mural HaJsUrad, the famous journalist and 
author, tells us that at the funeral of the ex- 
I^resident, in 1892, Governor McKinley and 
his staff were present, and that McKinley cried 
like a child when he ^xjked for the last time on 
the face of his dead comrade and p^r'orj;J 
friend. 

Durinj^ the war days youn^ McKinley -,tood 
firm as a r''x:k, in that he did not yield to the 
terrible temptations that so often lxr->et a man 
in the rouj^h and ru^j^ed life of the army. He 
always remained true to his early moral in- 
struction and religious training received around 
the home hearthstone. 

Dr. Nardyz, a retired army surgeon, who 
was McKinley's intimate friend for three years, 
said some years ago : 

"The young Major seemed to be very re- 
ligious, 'i'his fact impressed me very much, 
as well as the deference shown him by the men 
on this accr/unt. In the three years we were 
together I never saw Major McKinley drink 
a drop of hVjuor, nor heard him use a profane 
word, 'i'hat is wonderful to record of a man 
thrown into the rough life of the army. It 



28 William Mc Kinky 

was not at Antietam that President McKinley 
distinguished himself, for his regiment had no 
chance to do anything there. It was at Get- 
tysburg. His name is always associated in 
my mind with Gettysburg and a magnificent 
charge on a stone wall in a hollow before Cem- 
etery Hill. There is where the young, smooth 
Major showed the true qualities of a soldier, 
and the men who were alive after that charge 
felt a new regard and increased respect for 
the man who did not swear or drink, but was 
as cool and collected as the oldest veteran." 

It was said after the war that William Mc- 
Kinley learned his tactics and duties as a sol- 
dier very readily. From Camp Chase the regi- 
ment was ordered to Clarksburg, W. Va., and 
toward the close of the month it left Clarks- 
burg and went to Weston. There, it is said, 
it rained constantly, making it necessary for 
the soldiers to often sleep on wet blankets. 

The guns that were used in those days were 
the old-fashioned "smooth-bores." The one 
that Private McKinley carried during the four- 
teen months he served in the ranks is still in 
existence, and is owned by a friend of McKin- 
ley's in Canton, who, it is needless to say, 
greatly treasures it. When McKinley was 
Governor of Ohio he delivered an address in 
memory of Rutheford B. Hayes. During the 
speech he spoke a little about his army life and 



A Biographical Study 29 

of his first meeting Major Hayes at Camp 
Chase. Concerning the army, he said: 

'The State could furnish only the most in- 
ferior guns, and these we positively and proud- 
ly refused to accept. We would accept noth- 
ing but the best. The officers spent most of 
the day in trying to persaude us to receive the 
guns for a few weeks, if only for the purpose 
of drill. None of us knew how to use any 
kind of a musket at that time, but we thought 
we knew our rights, and were all conscious of 
our importance. They assured us that more 
modern guns would soon be supplied. Major 
Hayes did the talking to our company, and I 
shall never forget the impression of his speech. 
He said that many of the most decisive battles 
in history had been won with the rudest wea- 
pons. At Lexington, Bunker Hill and many 
other engagements of the Revolution our fore- 
fathers had triumphed over the well-equipped 
English army, with the very poorest firearms, 
and that even pikes and scythes had done good 
work in that glorious conflict. Should we be 
less patriotic than our brave ancestors ? Should 
we hesitate at the very start of another strug- 
gle for liberty and union, for the best and 
freest government on the face of the earth, be- 
cause we were not pleased with the pattern of 
our muskets, or with the calibre of our rifles? 
I cannot at this late day recall his words, but 
I shall never forget his warmth of patriotic 



30 William McKinley 

feeling and the sound sense with which he ap- 
pealed to us. That was our first and last mu- 
tiny. We accepted the old-fashioned guns, 
took cheerfully what was offered, and Hayes 
held us captive from that hour." 

Previous to September ist the regiment had 
been divided, but at this date they came to- 
gether at BuUtown, joined the forces under 
command of General Rosecrans and moved to 
Carnifex Ferry on September loth. At this 
point a small battle ensued, resulting in victory 
for the Union side. The Confederates were 
under command of General Floyd. After be- 
ing driven back they retreated across the Gua- 
ley River. 

After this fight the regiment having little to 
do, and the winter weather coming on, went 
into winter quarters. Some of the hardest ex- 
periences and most trying times of the war 
were encountered at this time. The historian 
of "Ohio in the War" gives us an account of 
this period. He says : 

*Trom this point the regiment operated 
against the numerous guerillas infesting the 
country in that quarter, performing many days 
and nights of excessively hard duty, marching 
and counter-marching over the rugged spurs 
of the Rich Mountain range, and drenched by 
the almost continual rains of that season. Thus 
we find the boys who had left their peaceful 
occupations and happy homes but a few months 



'A Biographical Study 31' 

previously suddenly plunged into an actual ser- 
vice that put to a severe test both their fighting 
qualities and powers of endurance." 

The hard winter did not break down McKin- 
ley's health, but seemed to build him up and 
make him more rugged in stature. He was 
very fortunate, only suffering one serious ill- 
ness and being absent once on furlough in his 
entire service. 

Throughout the war no one showed a better 
record than he did. During the winter he 
ministered to the sick in the hospital, and 
often, it is said, went without his own blanket 
so he might loan it to another comrade less 
fortunate than himself. 

In April Private McKinley won his first pro- 
motion, to that of Commanding Sergeant. The 
way in which he had borne his part as a pri- 
vate attracted the attention of his superiors. 
They recognized in him a person possessing 
more than the average of courage, steadfast- 
ness, executive ability and capacity for hard 
work. He entered upon his new duties on 
April 15th, 1862. Two days later the regi- 
ment was ordered to leave winter quarters and 
pursue the enemy, which they did, encounter- 
ing the Confederate troops at Clark's Hollow. 

After a slight skirmish, which was of little 
importance, the Twenty-third proceeded to 
Princeton, in West Virginia. McKinley's 
regiment expected a big battle at Princeton, 



32 William McKinley 

but fearing that they were not strong enough 
to hold the place, set fire to it and evacuated 
it. The Union troops entered the town, put 
out the fire, and thereby saved the inhabitants. 
After this Colonel Hayes, who had received a 
promotion, decided to leave the town and go to 
Flat Top Mountain, which he did, and he re- 
mained there until July 13th, when he marched 
the regiment to Camp Piatt, where they took 
transport to Parkersburg, and thence to Wash- 
ington, the Capitol City. This was McKin- 
ley's first trip to the Capital, and, it is said that 
he enjoyed viewing the public buildings and 
the White House. He little thought in those 
days that later in life he would spend so much 
of his time as a public servant in that city. 

After the regiment left Washington they 
were ordered to Frederick, Md., where it was 
expected a great battle would be fought, but 
upon the entrance of the Union army the Con- 
federates departed and took up a strong posi- 
tion at South Mountain. McKinley himself 
briefly described this battle in an oration before 
the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, 
Ohio, in 1893. He was Governor at the time. 
He said: 

"It was a lovely September day, an ideal 
Sunday morning. McClellan's army, with 
Burnside's corps in front, was passing up the 
mountain by the national road. General Cox's 
Ohio division led Burnside's corps and the 



A Biographical Study 33 

Twenty-third Ohio was in the lead of that di- 
vision. Hayes was ordered to take one of the 
mountain paths, and move to the right of the 
rebels. At 9 o'clock the rebel picket was driv- 
en back, and on our pushing forward the rebels 
advanced upon us in strong force. Our regi- 
ment was quickly formed in the woods, and 
charged over rocks and broken ground, through 
deep underbrush, under the heavy fire of the 
enemy at short range, and after one of the hot- 
test fights of the w^ar we drove them out of the 
woods into an open field near the hill top. An- 
other charge was ordered by Hayes. No soon- 
er had he given the word of command than a 
ball from the enemy's ranks shattered his arm 
above the elbow, crushing the bone to frag- 
ments. He called to a soldier to tie his hand- 
kerchief about the wound, but, turning faint, 
he fell, his men passing over and beyond him 
into the fight, where he had ordered them. 
\yhen he regained consciousness Hayes found 
himself under a heavy fire, with the bullets pelt- 
ing the ground all about him. He feared that 
his men were retreating, but he was soon re- 
assured, when, on calling out, he was carried 
safely into friendly cover." 

The battle of Antietam followed shortly 
after the fight at South Mountain. Here it 
was that young McKinley distinguished him- 
self again for bravery. 

The valor of McKinley during the battle of 



34 William McKinley 

Antietam has been described by General J. L. 
Botsford, of Youngstown, Ohio, who was the 
Quartermaster of the Twenty-third Ohio. He 
was present, and he says : 

''At the battle of Antietam McKinley was 
the Commissary Sergeant of the Twenty-third 
Regiment O. V. I., and his duty was, of course, 
with the commissary supplies, which were at 
least two miles from the battle-field proper. 
As you, no doubt, are aware, on all battles, 
whether large or small, there are numerous 
stragglers, who easily find their way back to 
where the commissary supplies are. This was 
the case at Antietam, and McKinley conceived 
and put into execution the idea of using some 
of these stragglers to make coffee and carry it 
to the boys in front. It was nearly dark when 
we heard tremendous cheering from the left of 
our regiment. As we had been having heavy 
fighting right up to this time, our division com- 
mander, General Scammon, sent to me to find 
out the cause, which I very soon found to be 
cheers for McKinley and his hot coffee. You 
can readily imagine the rousing welcome he 
received from both officers and men. 

When you consider the fact of his leaving his 
post of security and driving into the middle 
of a bloody battle with a team of mules, it needs 
no words of mine to show the character and 
determiniation of McKinley, a boy at this time 
of about 20 years of age. McKinley loaded up 



A Biographical Study 35 



two wagons with supplies, but the mules of 
one wagon were disabled. He was ordered 
back time and again, but he pushed on. As 
he gave a can of hot coffee and "hard tack" 
to one soldier, who had been shot, the comrade 
muttered, ''God bless the lad!" And McKin- 
ley afterward said that that alone had repaid 
him for the tireless energy and danger which 
he passed through. 

The result of this act of thoughtfulness on 
the part of McKinley had a tremendous effect 
on the lines. It made them like a new regi- 
ment, and when, later, the final order came to 
charge they did it with renewed vigor and en- 
ergy. 

At the close of the battle, perhaps the bloodi- 
est of the war, the Union men had the advan- 
tage of many points, although the victory, as 
a whole, is placed in the ''indecisive class." 
One point was that Lee retreated to the left 
bank of the Potomac, thereby preventing an 
attack upon the capital city. 

Upon hearing of Sergeant McKinley's devo- 
tion to duty and his bravery during the battle 
of Antietam Colonel Hayes was much im- 
pressed, and when in Ohio called on Governor 
Todd and told him of the incident. The Gov- 
ernor is reported as saying: 

"Such a fellow deserves promotion," and the 
latter at once wrote to headquarters and re- 



^6 William McKinley 

quested that Sergeant McKinley be promoted 
to Second Lieutenant. 

Directly after the battle of Antietam Mc- 
Kinley's regiment, a part of the Kanawha di- 
vision, was ordered back to West Virginia, and 
there went into winter quarters alongside the 
falls of the great Kanawha. Here Hayes 
joined his regiment after a short absence. He 
was well received by his command, for they all 
loved him. The camp that winter was named 
"Camp Lucy Hayes," in honor of the Colonel's 
wife. 

The regiment remained in winter quarters 
from October, 1862, to July, 1863. During 
this time McKinley received his third promo- 
tion, to that of First Lieutenant, and was as- 
signed to his old company, in which he had en- 
listed as a private at the outbreak of the war. 

The Lieutenant passed a good portion of his 
time drilling his company, but the remainder 
was spent in reading and studying. Even 
while in the army, every chance he got would 
be taken up in studying the lives of great men 
and the history of his country. 

In July the regiment moved upon John Mor- 
gan, the raider. Morgan had started with 
about 2,500 men to raid the country through 
Kentucky and Indiana ; most of his men were 
mounted, and when their poor horses became 
exhausted they would take others from the 
natives. Morgan soon reached the Ohio River, 




McKIXLEY IX FRATERNITY COSTUME. 
Courtesy of Roller Pub. Co., Canton, Ohio. 



A Biographical Study 37 



for his speed was about sixty miles a day. 
Within about seventy miles from Louisville, he 
crossed the river into Indiana, and so rapid 
was his march that on July 14th, he came with- 
in twenty-eight miles of Cincinnati. Colonel 
Hayes then started to stop his raid. Morgan 
did not wish to fight and retreated, but Hayes 
pursued him, and within the next few days 
caught him and captured all his men. The 
raider was taken to the Ohio penitentiary and 
the Twenty-third Ohio went into winter quar- 
ters at the same camp again. 

During the ensuing winter Lieutenant Mc- 
Kinley was placed on Hayes's staff. 

General Hastings, in speaking of McKinley's 
war services, said : 

"McKinley was always keen, quick and 
alert, and so was naturally fitted for staff ser- 
vice, a fact his superiors soon realized and took 
advantage of, so that during the greater part 
of the war he served on the staff of the gen- 
eral officers, one of the most dangerous posi- 
tions in the army, one which required the ut- 
most readiness of resource and bravery of the 
highest order." 

This winter was not so severe as the previous 
one, but still there was considerable suffering 
in the camp. The Twenty-third left camp on 
April 29th, and marched to a position a few 
miles above Brownstown, and there joined 
the division commanded by General George 



38 William McKinley 

Crook, who was preparing to cut the principal 
lines of communication between the Southwest 
and the city of Richmond. McKinley on one 
occasion spoke of this expedition in the follow- 
ing words: 

"It was a rough and trying march over 
mountains and through deep ravines and dense 
woods, with snows and rains that would have 
checked the advance of any but the most de- 
termined. Daily we were brought in contact 
with the enemy. We penetrated a country 
where guerillas were abundant, and where it 
w^as not an unusual thing for our men to be 
shot from the underbrush — murdered in cold 
blood. 

"At Cloyd Mountain the regiment encoun- 
tered the enemy, and there was a fierce and 
desperate engagement. The advance across 
the meadow, in full sight of the enemy and 
in range of their gims, through the creek and 
up over the works on the ridge, was magnifi- 
cently executed, and the hand-to-hand combat 
in the fort was as desperate as any witnessed 
during the war. Still another charge was 
made, and the rebels again driven back. On 
we hurried to Dublin Depot, on the Virginia 
and Tennessee Railroad, burning the bridges 
there, tearing up the track and rendering the 
railroad useless for the transportation of the 
soldiers or supplies. Then the new river 
bridge was destroyed, and then with frequent 



"A Biographical Study 39 



encounters we went on to Staunton, Va. We 
entered Lexington, the seat of the Confederate 
MiUtary Institute, after a sharp engagement, 
Hayes's brigade in the lead and sustaining all 
the casualties which occurred. Then on to 
Lynchburg, where, overcome by superior num- 
bers, constantly augmented by fast arriving 
reinforcements from Richmond, the whole di- 
vision was compelled to retreat. All commis- 
sary supplies were consumed, and, almost with- 
out food, we marched and fought our way back, 
closely pursued by the enemy. 

" 'After we reached our supply train,' to 
quote General Hayes, Sve stopped and ate, 
marched and ate, camped about dark, and ate 
all night. We had marched almost continu- 
ously for about two months, fighting often 
with little food and sleep, crossing three ranges 
of the Alleghanies four times, then ranges of 
the Blue Ridge twice, and marching several 
times all day and all night without sleeping.' " 

By those who participated in that march, 
which occupied a good part of a week, many 
tales are told. It was one of hardship and 
suffering. One veteran had said, in speaking 
of it : *T was used up by it. It was so cold 
at times I couldn't tell whether I had my nose 
or feet left, or not. When we laid down to 
sleep our blankets would often freeze fast dur- 
ing the night, so that we'd have to take an 
axe and chop them loose in the morning." 



40 Williami McKinley 

"I remember McKinley well on that march. 
He had just been made a First Lieutenant, and 
I imagine he had his eye on a captaincy — any- 
way, he did his full share toward hustling us 
along and helping stragglers. There was one 
poor chap who got dead beat out, and in climb- 
ing the mountainside he slipped and rolled in- 
to a hollow at least two hundred feet out of 
the way. There was no ambulance corps 
around, and no doctor within call, and the 
Sergeant detailed to look after stragglers, was 
about as fagged out as the man who took the 
tumble. I was looking at the poor chap when 
McKinley rushes up to me, and cries : 'Come 
on; let's help him up!' And away he goes, 
and me after him. I can tell you, it was a 
tough climb down into the hole, and a worse 
climb back. But we got him on his feet, and 
then two or three others joined hands with 
us, and in that way we got him up to the path. 
We made some hot coffee for him and gave 
him some liquor, and helped him along, and 
by and by he was all right again. But he 
didn't forget what we did for him, and since 
then he's voted for McKinley six or seven 
times." 

This great march, as described above, oc- 
curred in June, 1864. Hayes with his brigade 
stayed at Charleston until July 18, when they 
were ordered to attack the Confederates under 
Early, some ten miles beyond Harper's Ferry. 



A Biographical Study 411 

Under the large body of men undef Early the 
regiment found themselves completely sur- 
rounded. They bored their way out, however, 
and after hard fighting were able to join the 
main body of the troops under command of 
General Crook, near Winchester. During 
the next three or four months McKinley's 
regiment went through hard and desperate 
fighting. Finally the Southern troops were 
driven out of the valley of the Shenandoah. 
At this time General Grant, in command of 
the Union forces, received information that 
General Lee had ordered Early to proceed to 
Richmond. So, upon the reception of this 
news, Grant withdrew two corps from the 
valley to assist in the work before him at the 
capital of the Confederacy. This movement 
left Crook with only eight corps, or, in round 
numbers, about 6,000 men. Early, however, 
had deferred his visit to Richmond, and had 
taken his place at Strasburg. He there 
learned that Grant had taken two of Crook's 
corps, and he at once determined to return 
and overwhelm Crook, who, not being in- 
formed of the real condition of affairs, was 
peaceful at Winchester. 

Early arrived on Sunday morning, July 
24th. Crook, not believing that Early had 
come back with his entire force, sent only two 
small brigades under command of Hayes and 
Colonel Mulligan to check the advancing of the 



42 William McKinley 

enemy, who, it is said, had about twenty thou- 
sand soldiers. Hayes was badly equipped, 
having no cavalry and only a small number of 
men. At once he knew that his men must 
fight desperately if they expected to escape. 

In a few moments they found themselves 
surrounded by the cavalry of General Early, 
and at the moment it looked very much as if 
they would be compelled to surrender, or, if 
they attempted to fight, suffer a heavy loss of 
men. McKinley was still on Hayes's staff, 
and he with the rest of the regiment had a most 
trying ordeal before them. Hayes was confi- 
dent that there would be some way in which to 
act that would prove advantageous for his 
regiment. Just then he noticed that Brown's 
West Virginia regiment, which was in' aii> 
orchard near by, was holding its ground, and, 
fearing that it would not surrender until given 
orders to that effect and that it would be cap- 
tured, said : *They must be informed that 
the retreat has sounded." Just then Lieuten- 
ant McKinley passed by. "Lieutenant, do you 
see, yonder, Brown's regiment?" Hayes asked. 
The young officer saluted and said: *'I do, 
General." "It seems that the Colonel did not 
hear the retreat; he does not seem to realize 
that he alone is fighting a body of men ten 
times his own. He must be given an order to 
withdraw. Will you carry that order to 
him?" 



A Biographical Study 43 

"I will, General." 

"Understand, it is a very perilous journey." 

"I know that. General, but I will go." 

And before another word was spoken he 
was off, advancing toward the disabled regi- 
ment. 

The course compelled him to go before the 
fire of the enemy. Bullets flew around him 
on all sides, and once, just as he was reaching 
his destination, a shell burst almost under the 
feet of his horse and completely inwrapped 
him in the smoke. 

"He can't get through. We have even lost 
sight of him," said one. 

"He'll never come back alive," murmured 
one of the captains. 

On, and still on he went, all obstacles, en- 
countering bullets in front and behind him, 
until at last he arrived unhurt, and safe in the 
presence of Colonel Brown. 

"I should have thought you would have re- 
tired without waiting for orders," McKinley 
said. 

"I was thinking I would retire without wait- 
ing any longer," the Colonel answered, "and 
now I am ready to go wherever you lead; but 
before I go I want to give those fellows just 
one or two more volleys." 

"Then let 'em have it quickly," McKinley 
replied. At once the volleys were given and, 
following under the leadership of Lieutenant 



44 William McKinley 

McKinley, Brown's men started for the rear. 
Some of them were bewildered ; they knew not 
what to do. One body turned in the direction 
of the enemy, but with a shout from McKinley 
they about-faced and went in the right direc- 
tion. 

Lieutenant McKinley brought the regiment 
back to Winchester, where it took its place in 
the brigade. The first one to greet the young 
officer as he dismounted was Hayes, who said : 
''I never expected to see you again alive. You 
did your duty well." 

During that struggle the loss of officers and 
men was great. A Captain's rank was va- 
cant, and the records show that the day follow- 
ing after the siege William McKinley, for 
bravery and devotion to duty, won the vacant 
post. His assignment was to command Com- 
pany G of the Twenty-third Ohio. 

Another incident is told of McKinley at this 
time, which shows his kindness of heart. 

It seems that many of the inhabitants of the 
town came out into the streets to see the sol- 
diers go by, and some were affected at the 
sudden turn of affairs. And it is said that, in 
particular, there was one old lady in Quaker 
dress who stood crying at her gate. McKin- 
ley rode up and, saluting her, remarked : 

"Don't worry, madam, we are not hurt as 
much as it seems. We shall be back again in 
a few days." 



A Biographical Study 45 

The retreat was one which lasted until mid- 
night. The line of march was one continuous 
destruction of property. After marching up 
and down the Shenandoah Valley for a period 
of some length McKinley's regiment came to 
Berryville. 

One night, while the regiment was in this 
locality, Captain McKinley was ordered to 
take some directions from a Colonel who had 
misunderstood his orders. It was a very dark 
night, and McKinley was obliged to go by a 
dense underbrush. 

In speaking of it afterward, he said: **I 
scarcely knew what to do. I walked on a 
short distance, when a voice out of the dark- 
ness called *Who goes dar?' That was a 
Southern voice, and without reply I stepped 
back and took another course. Then came an- 
other voice, *Who comes there?' and I knew 
I was once more on the right side. I soon 
reached the regiment I was seeking, and then 
there was no more trouble." 

It was a most perilous journey, and had the 
Southerner Jcnew he was a captain from the 
Union ranks he would have been shot at once. 

Soon after this came the battle of Opequan, 
and here McKinley again distinguished him- 
self by his good judgment and quick percep- 
tion. 

Captain McKinley was at this time on the 
staff of General Crook, and at the start of the 



<. 



46 William McKinley 



battle he went to Colonel Duvall with a verbal 
order from General Crook. Duvall did not 
know the best way to move his division. Mc- 
Kinley was no more familiar with the country, 
but he had observed the country closely, as was 
his wont. "By what route shall I move my 
command?" inquired Colonel Duvall. Mc- 
Kinley replied by saying, *'I would move along 
this creek." 

Duvall, wanting to be more certain, said 
that he would not move at all without orders. 
Quick as a flash McKinley, realizing it as a 
matter of grave importance to move immedi- 
ately, said, unhesitatingly: "I order you, by 
command of General Crook, to move your 
command up this ravine to a position on the 
right of the army." 

Duvall obeyed at once. 

It was a daring move, but it showed Mc- 
Kinley's power of decision. He shouldered 
the whole responsibility. Long after, General 
Sheridan said to McKinley : ''That order of 
yours was all right because it turned out all 
right! But if it had turned out wrong, why, 
then, it would have been very wrong!" 

A short time after came the capture on Fish- 
er's Hill. 

McKinley himself said, concerning this cap- 
ture: ''This was one of the most brilliant of 
the many brilliant achievements of General 
George Crook. It was a flank movement 



^A Biographical Study 47 

through the woods and mountains to the en- 
emy's right. Never did troops advance with 
greater difficulty, on what appeared to be an 
impossible route over the mountainside, where 
it seemed the foot of man had never trod. 
Nothing was more brilliant or decisive during 
the entire war." 

After the enemy retreated, after being pur- 
sued for ten miles, the valley seemed to be so 
much cleared that Sheridan did not think it 
advisable to make another attack. But Early 
did not mean to give up his position in the 
Shenandoah unless forced to. Sheridan left 
for Washington, and placed in command Gen- 
eral Wright. Then came the famous fight, 
known to every reader of history. It has been 
beautifully portrayed by T. Buchanan Read in 
his poem, entitled "Sheridan's Ride." 

After consulting with the President and 
Secretary of War, Sheridan started back to 
Winchester, nearly twelve miles from his 
army. He arrived at Winchester on October 
1 8th, spent the night there, and at daybreak 
started for Cedar Creek. The sound of boom- 
ing guns startled him. ''What!" he said, 
*'the battle can't be on!" He at once hurried 
in the direction of the sounds. As he rode on 
he met baggage-wagons and wounded men 
along the path. He spurred up his horse and 
rode rapidly on. The route became clogged 
up more and more, until finally he was com- 



48 William McKinley 

pelled to take the field that he might quicken 
his speed. 

Upon arriving he was informed that Early 
had attacked them at 5 o'clock in the morning, 
taking Wright by surprise. Now Wright was 
in a better position, and as Sheridan came on 
the field of action a mighty cry went up : *'It's 
Sheridan! He will tell us what to do." 

General Sheridan rode up to McKinley, who 
had been earnestly working to keep the enemy 
from advancing, and asked him where Crook 
was. 

"I left him over there," replied McKinley, 
as he pointed toward the place. 

"Come on, boys !" shouted Sheridan, and he 
and McKinley rode off together, inspiring the 
men by their words to follow. It is a matter 
of history and well known how the Union 
army, inspired by the gallant leadership of the 
great General as he dashed down the Shenan- 
doah, drove out Early and his rebel host. 

With the defeat of Early the campaign in 
the Shenandoah came to an end. Sheridan 
now led his forces to Kernstown, and there 
established a camp. McKinley's regiment was 
located first at one place and then at another 
until the first of January, 1865, when it went 
to Cumberland. On that day Colonel Hayes 
received his appointment as Brigadier-General. 
During the time the regiment was at Cumber- 
land the weather was bitter cold. It rained a 



A Biographical Study 49 

good deal of the time, and food was very- 
scarce. The poor soldiers had a hard time of 
it, and the officers fared no better than the 
privates. In some cases the privates were bet- 
ter off, in that most of them had tents, while 
some of the officers slept on the ground with- 
out shelter. 

At this time Captain McKinley was serving 
on the staff of General Crook, and he went 
with him back to West Virginia. Hancock 
soon took command, and then McKinley 
served as a member of his staff. During the 
winter McKinley was assigned a place on Gen- 
eral S. S. Carroll's staff in Washington. He 
was made Adjutant-General, remaining at this 
point until the close of the war. 

General Sheridan had not forgotten McKin- 
ley's brave and ceaseless work during the raid 
in the valley of the Shenandoah, so he recom- 
mended his promotion. It came on March 
14th, 1865, when he was elevated to the rank 
of brevet-major. 

His commission read: "For gallant and 
meritorious services at the battle of Opequan, 
Cedar Creek, and Fisher's Hill," and was 
signed by A. Lincoln. 

The Twenty-third Ohio was mustered out 
of service on July 26th, 1865. In those four 
long years of war no one bore his part with 
greater fidelity to duty, with greater courage 
or steadiness than William McKinley, who en- 



50 William McKinley 

tered, a mere youth, as a private and came out, 
at the age of twenty-two, a Major. There are 
other records perhaps more brilHant, others 
that gained higher place on their country's 
roll, but none more faithful, more courageous 
and more alert in every emergency that Will- 
iam McKinley. He was fortunate in not re- 
ceiving any wound. Once, at Berryville, his 
horse was shot from under him, but he was 
unhurt. The records fail to show that he had 
more than one furlough. He was never ab- 
sent from duty on account of illness. It was 
a record that attracted the attention of many 
of his superiors, so much so, that General Car- 
roll and others, it is said, urged him to accept 
a commission in the regular United States 
Army. It was a tempting offer. Upon the 
advice and protests of his mother and family, 
he gave up army life when the war closed. 

In narrating McKinley's war record it has 
been the aim of the author to speak of only the 
most important engagements in which McKin- 
ley took part. To give the record complete 
it would be necessary to relate a main portion 
of the history of the Civil War, and that was 
not the purpose in this chapter. Tlie author 
has endeavored as often as possible to quote 
either the words of McKinley himself concern- 
ing an engagement, or those of some officer 
or private on the scene of action who knew 
exactly what took place. 



^A Biographica l Study 5^ 

Military life is hard, even when the best of 
conditions prevail. But through all those 
years, which ''tried men's souls," through the 
temptations and rough environments which 
exist in army life, it can be said truly that dur- 
ing the entire struggle he did not lose his viril- 
ity, but rather grew stronger in nobility of 
character. 



CHAPTER III. 

LAWYER AND OFFICEHOLDER. 

THE war having closed, and McKinley 
having declined a commission in the 
regular United States Army, he now 
diverted his attention toward the selec- 
tion of his lifework. It was soon observed 
that he had a yearning for legal science. The 
love of study and reading was still a predom- 
inant trait, and with his love of public matters 
and powers of oratory, his mind naturally 
tended to the study of the law. 

In his youth and young manhood he had the 
virility and seriousness of a man, and this at- 
tracted the professional men who came in con- 
tact with him. On one occasion his brother 
Abner said that ^'William was just as much a 
President in his bearing when he was a lad 
as he was when he took the oath of office." 
He was always very thoughtful, and formed 
readily his own conclusions. Some of his 
chums spoke of him as "the Studious Will- 
iam.'* He rather enjoyed this distinction. 

The story is told that, after he had listened 
very attentively to a case as it was being pre- 
sented in court one day, a lawyer said to him : 



^A Biographical Study 53 

"Well, Mac, what did you think of the case?" 
"I thought it went through the wrong way," 
he replied. "Why do you think so?" con- 
tinued the lawyer. "The defendant didn't 
bring out his evidence strong enough. He had 
a good case, it seemed to me. The goods he 
bought were not as good as they were repre- 
sented to be, and it wasn't fair to make him 
pay the full price for them." 

The lawyer expressed the same opinion, and 
lemarked that the case would likely be ap- 
pealed. And, strange to say, the case was ap- 
pealed; taken to a higher court, and there tried, 
and the verdict proved to be just as McKinley 
said it ought to be — for the defendant. 

The story is fitting, inasmuch as it shows 
very readily the judicial mind that young Mc- 
Kinley had at that early stage of his career. 

The young student commenced his study of 
the law in the office of a well-known member 
of the Ohio bar in those days, Judge Charles 
E. Glidden. The Judge had two offices, one 
in Youngstown, the other at Canton. It was 
to the former that young McKinley journeyed 
to study his chosen profession. It is related 
that he was then a tireless student, reaching 
the office early in the morning and paying no 
attention to lateness of hours. On one occa- 
sion, the Judge, having forgotten some impor- 
tant papers that he wished to take home, re- 



54 William McKinley 

turned about midnight. There McKinley sat, 
absorbed in a huge law volume. 

"Don't you ever expect to stop and go home 
and go to bed, young man?" inquired the 
Judge. 

''Oh, yes, Judge, after I master this insur- 
ance case!" The Judge investigated the case 
a little, and he, too, became interested. To- 
gether they sat down and studied the case for 
an hour. And when the Judge came to a cer- 
tain part he said: **What do you think of 
that?" 

*Tt doesn't seem to me to be right," an- 
swered McKinley. 

"And it is not right," said the Judge, em- 
phatically. "That decision can never stand as 
it is." 

Two years later, it is said, the decision which 
both decided to be incorrect was reversed. 

After remaining with Judge Glidden for a 
year and a half, in every available moment of 
which the young student was employed assid- 
uously in the pursuit of legal knowledge, he 
left Ohio and entered the celebrated Law 
School at Albany, N. Y. 

A former friend of the author's, now passed 
beyond the veil, who was McKinley's fellow- 
student at Albany, said that he did not impress 
him so much as a brilliant, as he did a thor- 
ough, student. He went at the bottom of 
everything, and got as much out of it as pos- 



A Biographical Study 55 

sible. He was earnest, resourceful and dili- 
gent throughout his entire course. McKinley 
would often be found listening to the cases as 
they were tried before the illustrious bar of 
the New York Court of Appeals. 

Upon graduating from the Albany Law 
School the young student journeyed to War- 
ren, Ohio, where he was to take his bar exam- 
inations. After passing creditably, he located 
in Canton, Ohio, partly because it was an en- 
terprising and growing town, thereby offering 
a larger opportunity for his labors, and partly 
because his sister Anna, the one who had be- 
friended him lovingly in all his undertakings, 
was teaching school there. McKinley opened 
a small office on the main street of the town. 
It might be added that, since those days, the 
office building has been torn down, and the 
Stark County court house erected in its place. 
The young lawyer was not pressed for time 
professionally in those days, but now and then 
a little work would come his way. 

One day Judge Belden, of Canton, whose 
office was in the same building as McKinley's, 
came in and handed the young attorney a bun- 
dle of papers, saying: ''Mac, here are the 
papers in a case which is coming up to-mor- 
row. I've got to be out of town, and I want 
you to try it.'* 

"I have never tried a case, you know, 



56 William McKinley 

Judge/' McKinley meekly replied. "Begin on 
t^is one, then," answered Belden. 

McKinley at once took the papers, and set 
to work on the case. He sat up all night and 
studied it. The next day he went to court 
and won it. While he was pleading the Judge 
came in the room, with a twinkle in his eye, 
and sat down. McKinley did not see him for 
a few days after he had won the case. Finally 
one day the Judge came in McKinley's office 
and handed the young lawyer $25, which Mc- 
Kinley refused to accept, saying: "It is too 
much, Judge, for one day's pay." "Nonsense, 
Mac," said Judge Belden. "Don't let that 
worry you. I charged them $100, and can 
easily afford to give you a quarter of it." 
From that day on McKinley's law practice be- 
gan to increase, until he became one of the 
most prominent lawyers in Canton. 

In McKinley's law pleading he indulged in 
cogent elucidation of facts, and placed them 
in logical order. His gift of oratory and most 
pleasing personality helped him in arguing be- 
fore a jury. He took no mean advantages 
over his colleague. He always played fair; 
content to be right, whether he was praised 
or blamed. He was more anxious to be just 
than famous. He soon became a leader of 
the Ohio bar. His early success as a lawyer 
cannot be better proved than by the fact that 
in two years from the time he entered upon 



A Biographical Study 57 



his profession he was elected prosecuting at- 
torney of his county, a distinction rarely con- 
ferred upon so young a man. Shortly before 
this appointment he formed a partnership with 
George W. Belden, then Federal District-At- 
torney for the Ohio district, the gentleman 
who had given him his first case. And this 
partnership lasted until the Judge's death. 

In preparing his cases, it is said that Mc- 
Kinley took nothing for granted. He studied 
the evidence thoroughly, and arranged his facts 
in a logical manner, so he could give the points 
of an argument in such a way as to convince 
and impress. He would take as much pains 
with an easy case as he would with one that 
was complicated. He was conscientious in 
accepting retainers. When starting as a law- 
yer he promised his mother that he would 
never take a case that he did not think was 
right, and he never allowed that promise to 
be obliterated from his memory. It is said 
that he would often do more in the interest of 
a client than was required. Said a gentleman 
in later years: "During his law career Mc- 
Kinley and his partner took up three cases for 
our firm. They won two and lost the other. 
At first we were angry at losing that last case, 
but, looking back, I am satisfied that McKinley 
did all that any lawyer could do, and more 
than many would do. A similar case was 
tried in Philadelphia by the leading lawyers of 



58 William McKinley 

that city, and fell through, just as ours did." 

McKinley soon became very popular. The 
people saw in him a large, warm-hearted char- 
acter. The community in which he lived 
strove to help his progress. The young man 
had enemies, as all who rise up in the world do, 
many tried to put him backward, but the ma- 
jority loved him for his kindness of heart and 
affability. 

There was another case which will bear men- 
tion, as it showed McKinley's honesty and 
fairness perhaps more than any other which he 
ever tried. He had been engaged as counsel in 
a very important case, one that involved thou- 
sands of dollars. As he was about to open it 
he received a notice from his legal opponent 
asking for a delay. "I am ready to proceed," 
said McKinley. "Why does my opponent ask 
for a delay? Everything is in readiness. I 
cannot grant one unless there is a good reason 
for it." 

He then learned that some valuable papers 
of his opponent's had been lost. McKinley 
granted the request for a delay. A few hours 
later he was found in the law library, studying 
the case further, w^hen he came across the lost 
documents. He took them up; handed them 
to the librarian, requesting him to give them 
to Mr. Blank, the lawyer who had asked for 
the delay. The case came up the next day, 
and by the trend of McKinley's argument it 



A Biographical Study 59 



showed that the honest young lawyer had not 
looked at the papers. McKinley lost the case, 
but put in at once a notice of appeal. Mr. 
Blank said afterwards to some friends that 
McKinley would have won if he had read the 
lost documents. When the case came up the 
second time McKinley won, and ever after- 
wards it is said the two opposing lawyers were 
warm friends. 

McKinley's legal knowledge came into ser- . 
viceable play in not a few of the many public ' 
positions that were given him to fill. 

In Congress he was first put on the Com- 
mittee on the Revision of Laws of Judiciary. 

And it is said that his legal views while in 
Congress, except perhaps on political questions, 
were never assailed. During his long Con- 
gressional service the librarian often found 
him in the section of the Congressional Libra- 
ry devoted to jurisprudence, consulting au- 
thorities. Lawyers and judges of the Ohio 
courts, it is said, often remarked that: "If 
McKinley stated a proposition it was dif^cult 
to gainsay it, so thorough had been his exam- 
inations, and so ethically accurate were his 
comments." 

Some of the volumes of Critchfield's Ohio 
Reports show that Mr. McKinley practised 
his chosen profession during the Congressional 
recesses. But it is said that "he declined prac- 
tice in pension cases and before the Court of 



6o William McKinley 

Claims, because he was unwilling to incur the 
suspicion of bartering subsequent votes as to 
claims through counsel fees." And it is also 
said that "he would not appear as private coun- 
sel before committees of the House or Senate, 
or among the departments of the government." 

Although McKinley had acquired a good ed- 
ucation, he never ceased to be a student. He 
recognized that knowledge was the door that 
unlocks opportunity and advancement to the 
individual. Up to the very day of his un- 
timely death he was eager to learn something 
that he had never known before. It was re- 
lated in Civil War times that Attorney-General 
Bates once said : "Confound the President, 
Lincoln is so excellent a lawyer under the max- 
im, ladcni ratio ibidem lex, that he is apt to 
advise himself offhand in matters that apper- 
tain to the Department of Justice, and does not 
call for an official opinion." 

The same case existed with the Ohio Attor- 
ney-General and McKinley, when the latter 
was Governor of Ohio. The Governor was so 
familiar with the laws of Ohio, and was so 
used to being his own legal adviser, that he 
would often without thinking advise himself 
offhand in matters relating to the Department 
of Justice, as Lincoln did in a national sphere. 
And when McKinley became the Chief Execu- 
tive of the nation his leeal knowledge again 
came into play. As an officeholder, McKinley 



'A Biographical Study 8ll 

was faithful to every trust. His personal pop- 
ularity exceeded that of any man of his genera- 
tion. 

His friendly, loyal and unselfish disposition 
won him lasting friends. He was generous 
to a fault. Indeed, his generosity knew no 
bounds. He never permitted small things to 
worry him, and it is said that defeat never 
made him gloomy. His campaigns were con- 
ducted on a high plane. He never spoke ill 
of any one, and none could truthfully speak ill 
of him. 

In the fall after his marriage, in 1871, Mc- 
Kinley was defeated by a very narrow margin 
of 45 votes for re-election as Prosecuting At- 
torney of Stark County. After his defeat 
he resumed the practice of the law for five 
years. During this period he was an ardent 
Republican, but had no personal interests in 
the results of the elections, except in wishing 
for party success. He always took an active 
part, however, in each campaign as a stump 
speaker. 

Party bosses and political veterans are not 
inclined to recognize, if they can help it, young 
blood that seeks political preferment, unless it 
does not affect their plans of leadership. 

McKinley was no exception to the rule. His 
friends had urged him to seek the nomina- 
tion for Congress. He, being ambitious in 
that direction, accepted their proposal, and an- 



62 William McKinley 

tiounced himself as a candidate. It is said 
the party managers of his district did not take 
much notice of his candidacy, and Httle thought 
that McKinley would win. He went into the 
canvass in his usual vigorous style, being 
known at that time only as a young lawyer of 
Canton and former Prosecuting Attorney of 
Stark County. The good work which McKin- 
ley rendered the party in the preceding cam- 
paign, when he assisted his old commander, 
General Hayes, in his contest for the Govern- 
orship, won him many votes. A friend has 
told the author, when speaking of those days, 
how McKinley and he hired a horse and buggy 
and drove around the country, meeting per- 
sonally the voters of the various towns and 
villages. Although his first nomination was 
(hard to secure, the election resulted in a vic- 
tory for McKinley of a plurality of more than 
thirty-three hundred. It is not strange that 
the old political war-horses were surprised at 
the rise of this young man, who was only thir- 
ty-three, but ever afterwards his party leaders 
and constituents were proud of him as their 
representative. When his opponents raised 
the question of his youth, as some did, they 
did not remember that Jefferson wrote the 
Declaration of Independence when he was but 
thirty-three, that Henry Clay became Senator 
at twenty-nine, that Madison went to Congress 
when he was twenty-nine, or that Webster 



A Biographical Study 63 

and Blaine entered Congress at thirty-one and 
thirty-two, respectively. 

McKinley was put at the bottom of the 
Committee on the Revision of Laws by Speak- 
er Randall. A committee of not much impor- 
tance, still it gave the young Congressman 
time for study and research. In his first 
years in Congress he was modest, contenting 
himself to be a silent listener, rather than 
speaking upon every subject that came up. But 
it is said that when he did speak he had some- 
thing to say that was worth hearing. The 
young Congressman grew day by day in men- 
tal strength, and soon became a persistent 
worker. After the day's work at the Capitol 
he went straight to his hotel and his invalid 
wife. Tom Murray, who was the manager 
of the House restaurant for years, tells us that 
he watched McKinley's daily coming for a 
bowl of crackers and milk, which, consumed, 
he returned to his work, while his colleagues 
"regaled upon terrapin and champagne." Yet 
it is said that McKinley was very popular with 
his fellov\^-members on both sides of the House. 

His colleague from Ohio, Hon. John A. 
Kasson, in speaking of McKinley's Congres- 
sional career, has said : "I well remember his 
courteous manner, his flow of candid speech, 
his patience under interruption by more excit- 
able members. He always answ^ered by truth- 
ful statement or conscientious argument, not 



64 William McKinley 

by sharp and impatient repartee, as was our 
more common custom in that numerous assem- 
bly. Candor and kindness appeared to be in- 
stinct of his nature. His breast gave no shel- 
ter to malice or anger. In return, neither wrath 
nor antipathy ever found expression against 
that patient and courteous gentleman ; for gen- 
tleman he was in manner and in every impulse 
of mind and heart." 

His real Congressional prominence began in 
his second term in Congress or upon the retire- 
ment of General Garfield from the Ways and 
Means Committee after election to the Presi- 
dency, in 1880. From the day he entered 
Congress McKinley was a protectionist. His 
district was a manufacturing one, and this, 
naturally, led him to consider industrial prob- 
lems. In his own mind he saw where protec- 
tion was a benefit, and then and there proposed 
to stand by that, cause. He faltered not, but 
sought with all his energy and intellectual vig- 
or to impress Congress with his views. In a 
very brief period, when measured by the course 
of others, he won unusual distinction by his 
judgment and sagacity. When we remember 
that he began at the foot of the ladder in com- 
mittee appointment and steadily worked his 
way to the front, it is all the more praise- 
worthy. In his book, 'Twenty Years in Con- 
gress," James G. Blaine speaks of McKinley, 
in reviewing the Forty-fifth Congress, in the 



A Biographical Study 65 

following words: "The interests of his con- 
stituency and his own bend of mind led him 
to the study of industrial questions, and he 
was soon recognized in the House as one of 
the most thorough statisticians and one of the 
ablest defenders of the doctrine of protection." 

McKinley's greatest work in Congress was, 
of course, on the tariff question. He became 
a past master in every phase of that subject. 
A perusal of the "Congressional Record" dur- 
ing the time in which he was a member of the 
House will show no better exponent of it than 
William McKinley. Some one has said that 
"he was a thorough master of all the intricacies 
of commercial history and commercial theory 
which the work of handling such a law in the 
passage through Congress demanded. He did 
the work with consummate ability, and entirely 
earned his right to be known as the father of 
the McKinley bill, and henceforward as the 
leading exponent of the protective doctrine in 
the Republican party." The tariff question is 
generally regarded as dry and uninteresting to 
the average person, but McKinley had a way 
of presenting facts and theories and clothing 
them in such interesting language that his ad- 
dresses on that subject were noteworthy. 

The bill which bore his name was signed by 
the President and became a law on October 6, 
1890. For the success of this measure Mc- 
Kinley labored early and late. He never 



(id William McKinley 

swerved. No duties were fixed until every 
condition that was worthy of consideration 
had been heard. The work was carefully 
done, and when it was finished, it was said to 
be *'the best, the most complete bill ever pro- 
duced." The Hon. John Sherman said of the 
bill, in a letter to W. C. Harding, of Boston, 
that, "on the whole, it is the fairest and best 
tariff, not only for revenue, but for protec- 
tion, that has had a place on our statute book." 
In closing his speech on the bill before its 
passage, and after he had explained its pro- 
visions and had spoken upon the tariff ques- 

„ tion as a whole, McKinley said : 

/^ "Experience has demonstrated that for U9 
and ours, and for the present and the future, 
the protective system meets our wants, our 
conditions, promotes the national design, and 
will work out our destiny better than any 
other. 

"With me this position is a deep conviction, 
not a theory. I believe in it and thus warmly 
advocate it, because enveloped in it are my 
country's highest development and greatest 
prosperity ; out of it come the greatest gains to 
the people, the greatest comforts to the masses, 
the widest encouragement for manly aspira- 
tions, with the largest rewards, dignifying and 
elevating our citizenship, upon which the safety 
and purity and permanence of our political 
system depend." 



? 5 




^ Biographical Study Sy 



While it is not the aim to go into McKin- 
ley's Congressional work as a whole, for it 
would be impossible in this chapter, still the 
above was given to show how deepy he felt in 
regard to the passage of the bill in which he had 
worked so earnestly and so long. 

It will be remembered that the incoming ad- 
ministration under Cleveland placed upon the 
statute books the Wilson-Gorman tariff, which 
took the place of the McKinley bill. And 
when it was remarked that the McKinley bill 
caused the defeat at the polls of the Republican 
party, the next year after its passage, William 
McKinley said to Mark Hanna the following: 
"That may have been so, but the bill was 
passed so short a time prior to election that it 
was easy for our opponents to make charges, 
and there was no time for us to combat them ; 
but wait and see, Mark; wait and see. The 
principles and policies of that bill will yet win 
a greater victory for our party than we have 
ever had before. This misunderstanding will 
yet contribute to overwhelming Republican 
success." 

McKinley served fourteen years in the 
House, and when he came up for the eighth 
nomination he found himself facing, as it has 
been said, a difficult campaign, inasmuch as 
the Democrats had obtained control of the 
Ohio Legislature and had gerrymandered his 
district. This was the second time that this 



68 William McKinley 

had been done. McKinley's opponent was the 
Hon. John G. Warwick, a gentleman who had 
previously served as Lieutenant-Governor of 
the State. Nevertheless, the Major, as Mc- 
Kinley 's friends called him, went into the con- 
test with as much spirit as in former cam- 
paign^, and worked hard for his re-election. 
He came within 300 votes of winning. It 
was the second and last time that McKinley 
lost an election. 

After it was known that he had been de- 
feated he was asked to make a sts.tement in 
regard to the result, and, taking up a ''Con- 
gressional Record," he wrote on the back page 
these words : 

''Protection was never stronger than it is 
at this hour, and it will grow in strength and 
in the hearts of the people. It has won in 
every contest before the people from the be- 
ginning of the government. The elections 
this year were determined upon a false issue. 
A conspiracy between importers and the free 
traders of this country to raise prices and 
charge it upon the McKinley bill was success- 
ful. But conspiracies are short-lived and soon 
expire. This one has already been laid bare, 
and the infamy of it will still further appear. 
Increased prosperity, which is sure to come, 
will outrun the maligner and vilifier. Keep up 
your courage. Strengthen your organizations 
and be ready for the great battle in Ohio in 



A Biographical Study 69 

1891, and the still greater in 1892. Home and 
country will triumph in the end. Their ene- 
mies, whether here or abroad, will never be 
placed in permanent control of the Government 
of Washington, of Lincoln, and of Grant." 

His defeat for re-election to Congress 
brought him forth as the candidate for Govern- 
or of Ohio. Even before he left Congress he 
was looked upon as candidate. When the con- 
vention convened no other name was presented, 
and McKinley was nominated on the first bal- 
lot. The Major spoke during the campaign 
which followed in eighty-five counties of the 
State, and made one hundred and thirty-four 
speeches. At the polls in November he won 
a decisive victory over his opponent, Governor 
Campbell, who had been renominated by the 
Democratic Convention. McKinley's first 
term as Governor was a quiet administration. 
In the summer of 1893 he was renominated, 
and was elected by a still larger majority than 
in the first contest, receiving at the time the 
largest vote that the State of Ohio had ever 
given a candidate for Governor. His second 
administration was a far more difficult one. 
In the first year alone McKinley was com- 
pelled to call out the militia some fifteen times 
to maintain peace. 

It was on one of these occasions that a poli- 
tician called to see the Governor. Mr. Mc- 
Kinley was engaged at the time and could not 



(70 William McKinley 

be interrupted, and this was reported to the 
gentleman. After Governor McKinley's sec- 
retary informed the man that the Governor 
was busy, the man said : **Tell him that, in 
my opinion, if he calls out the State militia, he 
w^ill never become President of the United 
States." Quick as a flash, with the delivery 
of the message, Governor McKinley turned to 
his secretary and said: "You return to that 
man and tell him that we will take care of the 
strike first and the Presidency afterwards." 

Just about this time occurred the unfortunate 
affair of the failure of Mr. Robert L. Walker, 
capitalist, banker and boyhood friend of Gov- 
ernor McKinley's. When McKinley ran for 
the first time for Congress Mr. Walker had 
helped him financially. He had also loaned 
McKinley money at other periods of the Ma- 
jor's life; but these debts had all been paid. 
Mr. Walker came to IMcKinley one day and 
asked him to endorse some notes for him, say- 
ing that he was pressed for money. McKin- 
ley, trusting his old friend, gladly did as re- 
quested, remembering how Mr. Waker had 
helped him. The Governor also endorsed 
other notes from time to time to help his friend 
out only. He felt confident in doing this, as 
Mr. Walker was a prominent man of Youngs- 
town, enjoyed the friendship of the communi- 
ty, and was said to be rated at $250,000. The 
notes were made payable in thirty, sixty and 



A Biographical Study 71 

ninety days. And, to quote Mr. Murat Hal- 
stead, *'Major McKinley endorsed, as he sup- 
posed, about $15,000 worth. They were dis- 
counted as Walker planned, and Major Mc- 
Kinley thought no more of the matter until 
February 17th, 1893. On that day Youngs- 
town and Mahoning Valley was startled by 
the assignment of Robert L. Walker, a judg- 
ment of $12,000 against the Youngstown 
Stamping Company causing the failure. The 
stove company, the coal mines and the other 
enterprises of Mr. Walker's went down by the 
next day. Then the banks which held the 
Walker paper began to figure. Major McKin- 
ley was leaving his home to go to the banquet 
of the Ohio Society in New York when he was 
informed of the disaster. He cancelled his 
New York engagement, and took the first train 
to Youngstown. There he learned that in- 
stead of being on the Walker paper for 
$15,000, his liability in that direction was over 
$100,000. He could not understand it. Banks 
all over the State telegraphed him they had 
some of the paper. He was under the im- 
pression the paper had been discounted in but 
three banks. He had a conference with his 
friends. He told them he had endorsed a 
number of notes, but he understood that fully 
half of them were made out to take up notes 
which he had first endorsed, and which had 
fallen due. A little investigation showed that 



*J2 William McKinley 

the old notes were still unpaid, and the new 
notes had doubled, trebled, quadrupled the 
debt. The Walker liabilities were about 
$200,000, and the assets not half that sum. 

After the conference with his Youngstown 
friends. Major McKinley said: *T can hard- 
ly believe this, but it appears to be true. I 
don't know what my liabilities are, but what- 
ever I owe shall be paid, dollar for dollar." 

McKinley was not interested in any of 
Walker's business enterprises. The connec- 
tion was simply one of friendship. 

McKinley bore up under the strain nobly. 
"He was again among the ranks of the poor 
where he started," but he still retained his 
honesty and untarnished name. Subscriptions 
began to pour in from all over the State and 
elsewhere, and although McKinley sent many 
back, refusing their acceptance, he was, how- 
ever finally compelled to allow friends to ac- 
cept the money and pay every endorsement in 
full. One old colored woman saved up a few 
dollars from her hard earnings, and that was 
received among the other gifts of money. On 
February, 1894, every cent was paid, and the 
trustees deeded back to the Governor and Mrs. 
McKinley their original property. 

It will be seen that after all the years of 
preparation, as a lawyer, prosecuting attorney, 
Congressman and Governor he was well 
equipped for the Presidency when he was 



'A Biographical Study '73 

nominated for that exalted office. He had 
twice put the opportunity aside; now he was 
the logical candidate, and he felt that he could 
accept the offer without infringing on the 
right of others more entitled to the honor. 
We have elsewhere spoken of McKinley in the 
Cabinet room and as Commander-in-Chief. 
Suffice it to say that he was a statesman and 
a diplomat of a high order. His administra- 
tion is yet too near to call forth any comments. 
That will be done by future writers. It is 
rather the purpose of this book, as has already 
been said, to sketch the man, his character and 
his ways, more than his official acts as a ruler. 
William McKinley never held himself above 
the rank and file. He was as kind and as 
cordial to the laboring people as he was to 
those in more exalted positions. One day, in 
the summer of 1901, he was sitting on his 
porch at Canton, when an old colored man 
passed by. The old man saw the President on 
the porch, and cried out: "Hello, Major!" 
"Hello, Tom!" said McKinley, "come here and 
let me shake hands with you. How are you, 
Tom? How is business?" It is needless to 
say how much it delighted the old man. 

McKinley has left us no anecdotes such as 
Lincoln, but the following story was much en- 
joyed at McKinley's expense for some time: 

On one occasion Mr. McKinley and a law- 
yer of Canton named Manderson, afterwards 



[74 William McKinley 

Senator of Nebraska, were to address a meet- 
ing at a certain place. McKinley was always 
very careful in preparing speeches, and this 
same careful preparation he displayed through- 
out his entire life. On the appointed day Mc- 
Kinley and Manderson drove over to the town 
where they were to speak together, and during 
the course of the drive Manderson said : "Ma- 
jor, what points are you going to bring out 
mostly in your address to-day? I have not 
prepared any speech." 

"What!" said McKinley, "you going to 
make a speech and don't know at this late hour 
what you are goin to say?" "No," said Man- 
derson. 

McKinley then commenced to give Mander- 
son a few ideas regarding his address, and the 
Major, so enviewed and absorbed with his 
subject, found at the end of the journey that 
he had simply recited his whole address, and 
also had produced documents and shown them 
to his friend to prove his statements. 

Manderson suggested that he should speak 
first, making a few remarks, and then yield 
over his time to McKinley. So, as agreed, 
Manderson spoke first, and, having a good 
memory, simply gave McKinley's speech near- 
ly word for word, and when he had finished 
said that Major McKinley had documents to 
prove all the statements that he had made, and, 
turning to McKinley, said : "J^st let me have 



A Biographical Study 7S 



the documents," and there was nothing else to 
do but to hand them over to him. McKinley's 
turn came ; he spoke briefly and retired. That 
was the first and only time McKinley was 
caught unawares or allowed another to get the 
better of him. Justice Day, of the Supreme 
Court, McKinley's Secretary of State, who 
told the author this story, said that it was a 
standing joke on McKinley for a long time 
around Ohio. 

It is often asked, especially by the young, 
if the great men of our history, those who at- 
tained the Presidency, ever wished or thought 
in their boyhood or young manhood that they 
would some day become President of the 
United States. 

We know that many did. Take Lincoln, 
for instance. One day, in answer to a lady's 
question of what he was going to make out of 
himself, said, ''Oh, I will work and study, and 
some day become President.'' When the au- 
thor asked a friend of McKinley's whether the 
President ever thought about those things in 
his youth, he replied that he did. He said 
that McKinley had promised a fellow-lawyer, 
that when he became President he (McKinley) 
woud appoint his friend to the Supreme Court 
bench. The President did not forget his 
promise, and the place was duly offered to the 
gentleman, but the latter, for certain reasons, 
declined the honor. It is also said that when 



\y6 William McKinley 

McKinley first entered Congress he had the 
Presidency in view. 

Having been so long in the legislative depart- 
ment of the government, he understood the re- 
lation between Congress and the Executive 
when he became President. He never antago- 
nized Congress, but he was none the less strong 
in advocating the views which he wanted the 
Congress to consider. His methods with Con- 
gress resembled those of Garfield's. 

Senator Hoar has said that: "President 
McKinley, with his great wisdom and tact, and 
his delightful individual quality, succeeded in 
establishing an influence over the members of 
the Senate, not, I think, equalled from the be- 
ginning of the Government, except possibly by 
Andrew Jackson." 

On the 19th of January, 1886, Congress- 
man McKinley delivered a speech in the House 
of Representatives in accepting the statue of 
General Garfield, which was presented by the 
State of Ohio and placed in Statuary Hall. 

It was so singularly like his own life and 
death that we could not close this chapter more 
fittingly in summing up McKinley's public 
career than to quote in part from its text: 

"In life his great character and commanding 
qualities earned the admiration of the citizens 
of his own State and the nation at large, while 
the lessons of his life and the teachings of his 
broad mind will be cherished and remembered 



^ Biographical Study yy 

when marbles and statues have crumbled to 
decay. 

**He was brave and sagacious. He filled 
every part with intelligence and fidelity. Dis- 
tinguished as was his milit?ry career, his most 
enduring fame, his highest renown, was earned 
in this House as a Representative of the peo- 
ple. Here he grew with gradual but increasing 
strength. Here he won his richest laurels. 
Here he was leader and master, not by com- 
bination or scheming, not by chicanery, or cau- 
cus, but by the force of his cultivated mind, his 
keen and far-seeing judgment, hie unanswer- 
able logic, his strength and power of speech, 
his thorough comprehension of the subjects of 
legislation. 

"In personal character he was clean and 
without reproach. As a citizen he loved his 
country and her institutions, and was proud 
of her progress and prosperity. « As an ora- 
tor he was exceptionally strong and gifted. 
As a soldier he stood abreast with the bravest 
and best of the citizen soldiery of the Repub- 
lic. As a legislator his most enduring testi- 
monial will be found in the records of Congress 
and the statutes of his country. As President 
he displayed moderation and wisdom." 



CHAPTER IV. 

AN ORATOR AND HIS SPEECHES. 

FRANKLIN said of Lord Chatham : "I 
have sometimes seen eloquence without 
wisdom, and often wisdom without elo- 
quence; but in him I have seen them 
united in the highest possible degree." What 
FrankHn'said of Lord Chatham may be said of 
William McKinley. In his eloquence there 
was logic, courageous thought, sincerity and 
^ truth. His earnestness and forcible way of 
/ putting arguments and his deep sympathy with 
the common heart of humanity made him not 
only an orator of the first magnitude, but won 
for him the admiration and friendship of the 
masses of his fellow-countrymen. 

He was gifted in the making of striking 
phrases, and often in these he looked with pro- 
phetic vision into the future. 

The way in which he set forth facts and 
theories, embodied as they were in a single 
phrase, and the numerous subjects which he 
handled gave proof, more than anything else, 
of the fertility of resource and the flexibility 
of his mind. 

He was always very careful in preparing 



'A Biographical Study 79 

his letters, messages and speeches. Through 
them all is found running his characteristic 
style of thought, and his foresight, courage and 
common sense. No American orator ever pro- 
duced purer rhetoric or exhibited more enthusi- 
astic earnestness or more beautiful sentiment. 

John Hay said : ''He became from year to 
year the most prominent politician and orator 
in the country. Passionately devoted to the 
principles of his party, he was alv^ays ready to 
do anthing, to go anyv^^here, to proclaim its 
ideas, and to support its candidates. His face 
and his voice became familiar to millions of 
our people, and wherever they were seen and 
heard men became his partisans. His face 
was cast in a classic mould; you see faces like 
it in antique marble in the galleries of the 
Vatican and in portraits of the great Cardinal- 
statesmen of Italy; his voice was the voice of 
the perfect orator — ringing, vibrating, tireless, 
persuading by its very sound, by its accent of 
sincere conviction. So prudent and so guard- 
ed were all his utterances, so lofty his courtesy, 
that he never embarrassed his friends, and 
never offended his opponents." 

Such was John Hay's opinion of William 
McKinley, the orator. Men who had heard 
McKinley's first speech say that it was strong 
and logical, and insist that at that early day 
they foresaw a great career in public life for 
the young speaker. 



8o William McKinley 

I According as the story goes, McKinley did 

/ not make his maiden speech as a political 

''spellbinder" on a finely arranged platform, 
but on a drygoods box, in the little town of 
New Berlin, Ohio. It seems that he was in- 
vited over from Canton on that occasion to fill 
a vacancy caused by a speaker who was unable, 
at the last moment, to be present. 

The drygoods box was placed in front of the 
village post office. Mr. Michael Bitzer, who 
was still living a few years ago at the age of 
eighty-six, was chairman of the meeting, and 
when McKinley, a mere youth in appearance, 
stepped upon the platform the first question 
of the presiding officer was, addressing the 
young man, "Can you make a speech?" The 
rest of the story may be told by Mr. Bitzer 
himself : 

"Could he speak? Well, I should say he 
could. Everybody was simply dumfounded. 
For nearly an hour he talked as never a young 
man in Stark County had talked before. I 
told Judge Underbill, who accompanied him, 
after the meeting that McKinley did a blamed 
sight better than he did, and the Judge, too, 
pronounced him a coming politician. 

"I really was surprised when Judge Under- 
bill introduced that young stripling of a boy 
to me, saying that he had come to m.ake a 
speech in place of another Judge, who was 
unable to be present. Of course, I only asked 



^A Biographical Study 8il 

McKinley in a joke if he could make a speech. 
I spoke to him much as I would to a boy, but 
I really did have my doubts about such a young 
man doing justice to the occasion." 

Mr. Bitzer introduced him as William Mc- 
Kinley, of Canton. It is said that McKinley 
arose and looked over his audience in a way 
as though accustomed all his life to making 
speeches. There was not a sign of the per- 
turbation which generally accompanies the 
maiden effort of a speaker. ''But," says Mr. 
Bitzer, "as I remember him, the same strong 
characteristics which have been so notable in 
his public life within the last few years stood 
out forcibly on that night." 

Ever after that first speech he was in con- 
stant demand as a campaigner. In the Presi- 
dential campaign of 1868 he spoke at town 
halls and schoolhouses throughout the country, 
so by the time his own campaign in 1869 ^^^ 
Prosecuting Attorney came along he was equal 
to the task. It has been said that "he was 
assiduous in his campaigning and persuasive, 
not antagonistic, in his arguments." 

When McKinley entered Congress Ruther- 
ford B. Hayes, his old military commander and 
personal friend, was President. The Chief 
Magistrate was closely watching the career of 
his former comrade, and one day he said to 
McKinley : "To achieve success and fame 
you must pursue a special line. You must not 



82 William McKinley 

make a speech on every motion offered or bill 
introduced. You must confine yourself to one 
particular thing; become a specialist. Take 
up some branch of legislation and make that 
your study. Why not take up the subject of 
the tariff? Being a subject that will not be 
settled for years to come, it offers a great field 
for study and a chance for ultimate fame." 

With these words ringing, as it were, in his 
ears, McKinley at once set to work on the 
study of the tariff question. He saw where 
protection was a benefit, and then and there 
proposed with unconquering zeal to stand by 
that cause. He never faltered. It was a 
recognized fact that McKinley had a thorough 
and complete knowledge of the tariff. He be- 
lieved in protection, because he was convinced 
it was necessary for the prosperity of the coun- 
try. It was not a theory with him, but a 
sound, settled conviction. 

McKinley, in speaking, never indulged in 

: any flights of oratory ; he never told any anec- 

/ dotes; he went straight to the subject of his 

/ theme, and used argument and illustration to 

/ convince his hearers. 

One of his leading opponents in the House 
used to say that he had to brace himself mental- 
ly not to be carried away by the strong under- 
current of McKinley's irresistibly persuasive 
talk. 

His first speech in Congress, which was de- 



^A Biographical Study 83 

livered at a night session, was in opposition 
to Fernando Wood's non-protective bill, which 
was introduced in the House during the sea- 
son of 1878. 

Like Lincoln, he could state the argument of 
his adversary as justly and as impetuous as his 
own. 

Old politicians soon discovered that a new 
force was arising on the political horizon; and 
when the day came upon which McKinley re- 
ported and opened the debate on the tariff bill 
which bears his name, it won for him lasting 
renown as a debater and orator. 

It has been said that *'his contrast between 
protection and free trade, which closed that 
famous utterance, points at once a picture and 
a prophecy." 

*'VVe have now," he said, in closing, "en- 
joyed twenty-nine years continuously of pro- 
tective tariff laws — the longest uninterrupted 
period in which that policy has prevailed since 
the formation of the Federal Government, and 
we find ourselves at the end of that period in 
a condition of independence and prosperity, the 
like of which has no parallel in the recorded 
history of the world. In all that goes to make 
a nation great and strong and independent, we 
have made extraordinary strides. We have a 
surplus revenue and a spotless credit. 

**To reverse this system means to stop the 
progress of this Republic. It means to turn 



84 William McKinley 

the masses from ambition, courage and hope 
to dependence, degradation and despair. 

''Talk about depression ! We would have it 
then in its fulness. Everything would indeed 
be cheap, but how costly when measured by the 
degradation that would ensue! When mer- 
chandise is cheapest, men are poorest, and the 
most distressing experiences of our country — 
aye, of all history — have been when every- 
thing was lowest and cheapest, measured in 
gold, and everything was highest and dearest, 
measured by labor." 

It is singular that McKinley's first speech in 
the halls of Congress was on the protective 
tariff question and his last speech was also on 
that subject. How eloquent McKinley could 
make his speeches on the supposedly dry sub- 
ject of the tariff is well illustrated by an anec- 
dote told by one of the noted judges of that 
time: 

A bill was pending in the House, and a num- 
ber of speakers were to talk on either side be- 
fore a final vote was taken. McKinley, who 
was put on the list was next to the last speaker 
on his side. When his turn came, his hearers 
became tired out and were getting anxious to 
retire from the chamber. But as McKinley 
proceeded one after another turned to /isten 
attentively, until the whole House was follow- 
ing every word he said. When he concluded 
there was a burst of applause, and the Hon. 



COPYRIGHT BY J. C. HEMMENT 




A CHARACTERISTIC POSE 
Reproduced by courtesy of Collier's Weekly. 



A Biographical Study 85 

D. C. Haskill, who spoke last pressed forward, 
shook McKinley's hand cordially and said: 
''Major McKinley," with real earnestness, "I 
shall speak last; but you, sir, have closed the 
debate." 

Critics have said that President McKinley 
was a man of one idea. Because of his vast 
and manifold study of the tariff question and 
because he was identified so closely with that 
subject, they presumingly supposed he was lack- 
ing in knowledge upon other subjects. Noth- 
ing could be farther from the truth than that 
supposition. 

General Grosvener, who served long witK 
McKinley in Congress, and who knew him in- 
timately in private and public life, says, regard- 
ing McKinley as a man of one idea : 

^'During Governor McKinley's long service 
in Congress he gave special attention to the 
subject of the tariff, and as a member of the 
Ways and Means Committee devoted much of 
his time to revenue legislation ; but it must not 
be understood that Governor McKinley is a 
man of power and a man of knowledge upon a 
single subject. It has been said of him in- 
cidentally that he is a statesman upon a single 
question and a man of learning with a single 
idea. No greater error could possibly be sug- 
gested. 

"Since the expiration of his term in Con- 
gress and during his four years in the admin- 



S6 William McKinley 

istration, as Governor of Ohio, he has delivered 
addresses upon a great variety of questions, 
and discussed a large number of subjects, all 
outside of his specialty in national politics. He 
has made many notable speeches upon questions 
wholly independent and differing from mere 
political considerations. Among the notable 
speeches which he made in Congress other than 
upon the tariff question were : upon the contest 
against Judge Taylor in the Forty-fourth Con- 
gress; the subject of free and fair elections in 
the same Congress ; a memorial address on the 
death of Garfield; payment of pensions in the 
Forty-ninth Congress; the Dependent Pension 
bill in the same Congress ; the purchase of Gov- 
ernment bonds in the Fiftieth Conress; memor- 
ial adress on the death of John A. Logan ; the 
question of a quorum in the Fifty-first Con- 
gress; civil service reform in the Fifty-first 
Congress; the Direct Tax Refunding Bill; the 
Hawaiian Treaty ; the eight-hour law ; and the 
Silver bill. These speeches, which are of the 
highest order of excellence, covered a wide 
lange of subjects. 

"Outside of Congress his speeches and public 
utterances have covered a still wider range. 
Among those that might be noted as of special 
interest are his address at Atlanta, Ga., before 
the Piedmont Chautauqua Association; the 
'American Volunteer Soldier,' Memorial Day 
address at New York City; * Prospect and 



'A Biographical Study 87 

Retrospect,' an address to the pioneers of the 
Mahoning Valley ; 'The American Farmer,' an 
address before the Ohio State Grange; 'Our 
Public Schools,' an address at the dedication 
of a public school building ; 'New England and 
the Future,' an address before the Pennsylvania 
New England Society ; 'The Tribune's Jubilee,' 
an address at the fiftieth anniversary of the 
founding of the Neiv York Tribune; 'Pensions 
and the Public Debt,' a Memorial Day address 
at Canton, Ohio; 'No Compromise with the 
Demagogue,' at the Ohio Republican State 
Convention of 189 1 ; a Fourth of July address, 
at Woodstock, Conn., 'The American Working 
Man ;' a Labor Day address at Cincinnati ; the 
*State of Ohio,' an address before the Ohio 
State Republican League ; 'Oberlin College,' an 
address before the Cleveland Aumni; 'Issues 
Make Parties,' an address to the Republican 
College Clubs of Ann Arbor, Mich; his noti- 
fication address to Mr. Harrison; a Fourth of 
July oration at Lakeside; 'The Triumphs of 
Protection,' an address before the Chautauqua 
Association, at Beatrice, Neb.; 'An AuxiHary 
to Religion,' an address at the dedication of the 
Young Men's Christian Association at Youns- 
town, Ohio ; an oration at the dedication of the 
Ohio Building at the World's Fair at Chicago; 
a memorial address upon the life and character 
of Rutherford B. Hayes; a speech at Minne- 
apolis upon questions of national import; an 



88 William McKinley 

address on Washington before the Union 
League Club, of Chicago, February 22nd, 
1893 ; an address to the students of the North- 
western University at Chicago on 'Citizenship 
and Education/ 'Law, Labor and Liberty,' a 
Fourth of July oration before the labor organ- 
izations of Chicago, addresses before the Na- 
tional Jewish Association at Cleveland, before 
the National Sangerfest at Cleveland; Grant 
memorial address at New York ; an address at 
the dedication of the Grant Monument at Ga- 
lena, 111. ; an address before the Epworth League 
of the United States at Cleveland ; an address 
before the Christian Endeavorers of the Baptist 
Union, and before the Christian Endeavor 
Association of the United Presbyterian Church 
at Columbus ; an address at Albany, N. Y., on 
Abraham Lincoln ; an address before the Cham- 
ber of Commerce at Rochester, N. Y., on *Busi- 
iness and Politics,' before the State (Ohio) 
Chamber of Commerce on 'Business and Citi- 
zenship,' before the German Veterans of the 
United States, at Columbus; a Memorial Day 
address at Indianapolis; an address before the 
Grand Army of the Republic; an address be- 
fore the Grand Army of the Republic at Pitts- 
burg, and most notably, his splendid oration 
at the dedication of Chicamauga and Chatta- 
nooga Park, and at the Atlanta exposition his 
speech upon 'Blue and Gray.' 

"A careful perusal of these speeches, ora- 



A Biographical Study 89 

tions, and addresses, will show that Governor 
McKinley, while an absolute master of all that 
relates to the tariff and all phases of govern- 
mental revenue, had yet distinguished himself 
in these other fields of oratory by the same 
thoroughness of, knowledge and the same 
beauty of oratorical effect. His oratory is of 
the choicest character; phrases and sentences 
came tripping and bubbling forth from him 
apparently without preparation, apparently 
without effort, forming the most beautiful con- 
stellations of oratorical effect and oratorical 
beauty." 

Although McKinley's voice had a wonderful 
carrying power, it is said that the impress of 
conviction it carried rather than the mere voice 
therof exerted a far-reaching effect on his audi- 
ences. 

His attitude in regard to his convictions is 
aptly illustrated by the following anecdote. It 
occurred in his congressional campaign of 
1882, when on account of the Democratic tidal 
wave, he was returned by a very small major- 
ity. Referring to this one day, Congressman 
Springer said in rather a derisive manner: 
"Your constituents do not seem to support you, 
Mr. McKinley." Mr. McKinley's reply was 
worthy of a Roman tribune. *'My fidelity to 
my constituents," he said, ''is not measured by 
the support they give me. I have convictions 



90 William McKinley 

I would not surrender if 10,000 majority were 
entered against me." 

As an orator, he did not belong to that class 
of public speakers who tried to win, through 
sensations or mock pathos ; but what he had to 
say, was said in the most earnest and unaf- 
fected style. It never failed, however, in its 
effectiveness. 

The great words which he uttered in the 
Oiicago convention of 1888, when his name 
was before the House as a candidate for the 
Presidency, have been called "literary gems." 
He had gone as a delegate from Ohio, and was 
pledged for John Sherman. 

This speech throws an admirable light on 
McKinley's character and political integrity. 
Shaking his head vigorously, said: *'Mr. 
Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention: 
I am here as one of the chosen representatives 
of my state; I am here by a resolution of the 
Republican convention, passed without one dis- 
senting voice, commanding me to cast my vote 
for John Sherman and use every worthy en- 
deavor for his nomination. I accepted the trust 
because my heart and judgment were in accord 
with the letter and spirit of that resolution. It 
has pleased certain delegates to vote for me. I 
am not insensible to the honor they would do 
me, but in the presence of the duty resting upon 
me I cannot remain silent with honor. I can- 
not consistently with the credit of the state 



A Biographical Study 91 

whose credentials I bear, and which has trusted 
me; I cannot with honorable fidelity to John 
Sherman, who has trusted me in his cause and 
with his confidence; I cannot consistently with 
my own views of personal integrity, consent, 
or seem to consent, to permit my name to be 
used as a candidate before this convention. I 
would not respect myself if I could find it in 
my heart to do so, to pay or to permit that to 
be done which could even be ground for any 
one to suspect that I wavered in my loyalty to 
the chief of her choice and the chief of mine. I 
do not request — I demand — that no delegate 
who would not cast reflection upon me, shall 
cast a ballot for me." , 

As the Lincoln-Douglas debate brought Lin- 
coln before the eyes of the country, so McKin- 
ley's continued campaigning made him the cen- 
tral figure of the political world. Beginning 
with his campaign for Congress in 1890, which 
resulted in his defeat, and the Gubernatorial 
canvass of 189 1, the congressional campaign 
of 1892, the second fight for the Governorship 
in 1893, the great "congressional contest of 
1894, the Ohio campaign of 1895, and the 
great struggle for the Presidency in 1896. Mc- 
Kinley was constantly in battle; never ceasing 
in his work of advocacy and loyalty to party 
principles. His voice seemed to gain in power 
and strength, instead of breaking down under 
the constant strain. As a campaigner and his 



92i William McKinley 

appearance on the public rostrum, Murat Hal- 
stead gives us a vivid and lucid description in 
his "Life and Distinguished Services of Wil- 
liam McKinley," as published by the author in 
1900; he says: 

"It is interesting to note the way McKinley 
begins a speech. The hall is always filled when 
he is booked to talk. It usually happens that it 
is difficult to get him into the hall, because of 
the crowds on the outside. The moment he 
appears on the platform is a signal for a pro- 
longed and vehement cheering. His face flushes 
a little and his eyes flash. He breathes quickly 
and compresses his lips, the lines around the 
mouth taking prominence. He brushes the hair 
back from his forehead with a nervous hand. 
Though outwardly composed, it appears to 
those who know him that he is a little anxious 
and a bit apprehensive, possibly almost 
alarmed. It is worthy of note when he steps 
on a platform and is greeted with enthusiasm, 
he bows low and waves his hands from side to 
side. The silk hat is always in the right hand, 
the brim firmly gripped. This is generally 
ruffed, for at the moment he forgets that it 
gets pressed. The bowing continues until the 
fury of the reception shows a sign of abate- 
ment. For the last four years almost every 
chairman of a meeting has introduced him as 
"the next President." To those who cam- 
paigned with him, this became somewhat of a 



^A Biographical Study 93 

joke, and there were bets made, the odds being 
always two to one that would be the introduc- 
tion. Now the chairman of a political meeting 
is generally a man of consequence in the neigh- 
borhood where the meeting is held. The op- 
portunity of introducing such an orator as Mc- 
Kinley does not come often, and every chair- 
man takes advantage of it. It is amusing to 
note the expression of McKinley's face when 
the introduction is prolonged. He frowns 
almost imperceptibly. Only one who has stud- 
ied his countenace would notice it. There fol- 
lows a look of weariness and then of impa- 
tience. He moves his feet a little and is rest- 
less. The strain is becomng painful to hear 
and the compliments dreary. They have been 
repeated probaby twice before on the same day, 
and it is not often that anything of keen inter- 
est is said. When the inevitable "next Presi- 
dent'' comes the Major's face is impassive. One 
would not know from his attitude that the ref- 
erence was to him. He does not seem to hate 
it, but would as leave it was omitted. 

Finally the chairman has come to the "Fel- 
low citizens, I have the great pleasure, etc.," 
and McKinley steps forward and there are 
cheers. The speaker clasps his hands behind 
him and bows right and left, to the pit and to 
the gallery. He moves his hand to still the en- 
thusiasts and begins. He has discovered 
whether there are women present and then in 



94 William McKinley 

a voice almost inaudible says, "Ladies and 
Gentlemen, my fellow citizens." The opening 
sentence is always a striking one. It is spoken 
in a low tone. Some one in the rear of the hall 
or at the edge of the crowd says ^'Louder !" and 
there are many sounds of ''Shu!" McKinley 
pays no attention to the interruption except 
to wave one hand again. The voice of the ora- 
tor becomes stronger and in ten sentences the 
words ring and reach every corner of the hall. 
The audience is leaning forward, eager to catch 
every word. As he proceeds the Major warms. 
He gesticulates with both hands. He hits the 
air a little to emphasize a point and while his 
attitude is unstudied it is graceful. He owns 
the crowd now. It is hypnotized by his elo- 
quence. His hair grows damp with perspira- 
tion. Possibly a dark lock will stray over his 
forehead. It is impatiently brushed back and 
the sweep of a handkerchief cools the brow. 
His eyes are flashing fire. His breast heaves 
with the storm. His voice rushes from between 
his teeth and his lips are compressed as he fin- 
ishes a word. His tones are pitched in a higher 
key. There is a metallic tone in the voice and 
yet it is musical. His bearing is impassioned. 
He has forgotten self and is regardless of 
everything, but his subject. One perceives that 
he is sincere in what he says. Every one sees 
that he is in dead earnest, that this is no sham 
passion but the real thing. His words pierce 



^A Biographical Study 95 

the air defiantly and it is astonishing any crea- 
ture can fail of conviction. The audience has 
grown intense in its interest. Many forget to 
cough or move. They are absorbed and their 
little selfishnesses are neglected. Every now 
and then some deep voice says **That is so!" 
or utters an "Amen." His companions, who 
have heard him a hundred times are as inter- 
ested as those who are hearing him for the first 
time. There is no resisting the earnestness of 
the orator, for all his soul and strength are in 
the speech. There will be nothing more seri- 
ous in the sound of the last trumpet. Some 
one may interrupt to ask a question, to try to 
*'stump him," to catch him unawares. Mc- 
Kinley is so discussing his subject that he fails 
to hear what is said. He stops and looks in the 
direction of the ground and then says sharply, 
*'What's that?" The audience cries, 'Tut him 
out" Probably the question is repeated. There 
is no hesitancy in the answer. The Major is 
ready. He turns a laugh on the questioner, by 
his flashing reply. He takes no mean advan- 
tage, but answers the question frankly. Gener- 
ally his reply is epigrammatic. It always is 
complete. Major McKinley has dramatic 
power and a magnetism as a speaker. In des- 
cribing scenes he pictures realistically. The old 
soldiers are always impressed when he refers 
to them. Again and again he has brought 
tears to the eyes of the veterans when he has 



g6 William McKinley 

told of the horrors of war. Old men sob 
like children and there is scarcely a dry eye in 
the multitude. There is a sincerity in his trib- 
utes to soldiers that is convincing. He has 
been there. He knows what he is talking 
about. Though of any one else, his talk of the 
war might be called stagey; that criticism is 
never made of McKinley. It would be impos- 
sible to find a speaker who has a better grasp 
of the subject, whether finance, protection, ar- 
bitration or foreign affairs. His talk is always 
illustrative and comprehensible and instructive. 
It is serious. There are not anecdotes to amuse. 
The orator does not convince by raising laughs, 
but rather by the indisputability of statements. 
It is a grave matter, this campaigning with 
him. It is a mission, not a jest; an attempt to 
convert, not to please. Neither does he arouse 
passion or opposition by assaults or trivial per- 
sonalities. He assumes that those who disagree 
with him are sincere, as he is, and seeks to 
relieve them of their error.'* 

President McKinley believed in sounding 
public sentiment. No other President, while 
performing the duties of his office, ever did so 
much travelling through the United States as 
he did; unless it is President Roosevelt. 

This was the method by which McKinley 
became acquainted with the masses, and 
learned to feel the pulse of the people and sat- 
isfy himself in regard to their desires. These 





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A Biographical Study 97 

trips brought forth the greatest enthusiasm 
for him, and the greetings and cordial recep- 
tions, were marked on the part of the hosts, 
with the most hearty and genuine demonstra- 
tions. All his addresses were carefully worded 
and because of their good will and fraternal 
spirit they were received with as much enthus- 
iasm in the South as they were among his own 
people in the North. 

The President began these trips to different 
parts of the country soon after his inauguration 
in 1897. The first of these was his visit to 
New York to make an address at the dedication 
of the great monument on Riverside Drive, 
April 2y, 1897. That address reveals McKin- 
ley's style as a eulogist. The following extract 
will show its style and sentiment : 

"A great life, dedicated to the welfare of the 
nation, here finds its earthly coronation. Even 
it this day lacked the impressiveness of cere- 
mony and was devoid of pageantry, it would 
still be memorable, becauuse it is the annivers- 
ary of the birth of the most famous and best 
beloved of American soldiers .... 

"With Washington and Lincoln, Grant had 
an exalted place in the history and the affec- 
tions of the people. To-day his memory is held 
in equal esteem by those whom he led to vic- 
tory, and by those who accepted his generous 
terms of epace. The veteran leaders of the 
Blue and Gray here meet not only to honor the 



gS William McKinley 

name of Grant, but to testify to the living real- 
ity of a fraternal national spirit which has tri- 
umphed over the differences of the past and 
transcends the limitations of sectional lines. Its 
completion — which we pray God to speed — 
will be the Nation's greatest glory. It is right 
that General Grant should have a memorial com- 
mensurate with his greatness .and that his last 
resting place should be in the city of his choice, 
to which he was so attached, and of whose ties 
he was not forgetful even in death. Fitting, 
too, is it that the great soldier should sleep be- 
side the noble river on whose banks he first 
learned the art of war, of which he became 
master without a rival. But let us not forget 
the glorious distinction with which the metrop- 
olis among the fair sisterhood of American cit- 
ies has honored his life and memory. With all 
that riches and sculpture can do to render the 
edifice worthy of the man, upon a site unsur- 
passed for magnificence, has this monument 
been reared by New York as a perpetual record 
of his illustrious deeds, in the certainty that, 
as time passes, around it will assemble, with 
gratitude and veneration, men of all climes, 
races and nationalities. 

*'New York holds in its keeping the precious 
dust of the silent soldier, but his achievement 
— what he and his brave comrades wrought 
for mankind — are in the keeping of seventy 
millions of American citizens, who will guard 



A Jio graphical Study 99 

the sacred heritage forever and forevermore." 

He made short trips afterward to attend the 
unveihng of the Washington statue, at Phila- 
delphia, May 15th, 1897; and to deliver an 
address before the American Medical Associ- 
ation, at Philadelphia, June 21st, 1897. But 
his first extended tour was to attend the Ten- 
nessee Centennial Exposition, at Nashville, 
June nth, 1897, and other cities in the South. 
He made other brief trips out of Washington 
during that year and in the early part of 1898, 
but during the progress of the Spanish War, 
he was unable to leave the seat of government 
for a long time. 

But as soon as hostilities were over and the 
treaty of peace signed, he took up his tours of 
the country again. 

The immediate trips after the close of the 
war were diplomatically used by the President 
to ascertain the true sentiment of the people 
toward the Philippines question. 
N^ In his speech at the auditorium in Atlantic 
on December 15th, 1898, speaking of the war 
and its results and in regard to the flag, he 
said : ''That flag has been planted in two hemi- 
spheres, and there it remains the symbol of lib- 
erty and law, of peace and progress. Who will 
withdraw from the people over whom it floats 
its potecting folds? Who will haul it down? 
Answer me, ye men of the South, who is there 
in Dixie who will haul it down?" 

tore, ^^ 



/ 



100 William McKinley 

It is said that the cheering and applause 
which followed was tremendous. 

The most extended tour during his Presi- 
dency, of course, was his trip to the Pacific 
coast, in 1901, which terminated in the serious 
illness of Mrs. McKinley at San Francisco. 

The declaration of love, veneration, and es- 
teem for a President, was never more manifest 
in any tour before. He made many notable 
speeches and was received with the utmost cor- 
diality. 

More than forty trips out of Washington 
were made by President McKinley during the 
four and a half years of his incumbency as the 
Chief Escecutive of the Nation. Although he 
had traveled many thousands of miles prior to 
his elevation to the Presidency, yet it is said 
that he covered more territory in the four and 
a half years than in all the years preceding. 

As this chapter deals with his speeches I am 
going to give a few extracts from some of his 
most important addresses. 

From an address delivered at the dedication 
of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers* Monument 
at Cleveland, Ohio, 4th July, 1894, he said: 

"The unity of the Republic is secure so long 
as we continue to honor the memory of the 
men who died by the tens of thousands to pre- 
serve it. The dissolution of the Union is im- 
possible so long as we continue to inculcate les- 
sons of fraternity, unity, and patriotism, and 



A Biographical Study loi 

erect monuments to perpetuate these senti- 
ments. 

"Such moments as these have another mean- 
ing which is one dear to the hearts of many 
who stand by me. 

"It is, as Mr. Lincoln said at Gettysburg, 
that the dead shall not have died in vain ; that 
the Nation's later birth of freedom and the 
peoples' gain of their own sovereignty shall 
not perish from the earth. That is what this 
monument means. That is the lesson of true 
patriotism; that which was won in war shall 
be won in peace. 

"But we must not forget, my fellow country- 
men, that the Union which these brave men pre- 
served, and the liberties which they secured, 
places upon us, the living, the grandest respon- 
sibility. We are the freest government on the 
face of the earth. Our strength rests in our 
patriotism. Peace and order and security and 
liberty are safe so long as love of country burns 
in the hearts of the people. It shall not be for- 
gotten, however, that liberty does not mean 
lawlessness. Liberty to make our own laws 
does not give us license to break them. Lib- \ 
erty to make our own laws commands a duty \ 
to observe them ourselves and enforce obedi- \ 
ence among all others within their jurisdiction. I 
Liberty, my fellow citizens, is responsibility, ■ 
and responsibility is duty, and that duty is to 
preserve the exceptional libety we enjoy within ' 



I lA 



102 William McKinley 

the law and for the law and by the law." 

And in the House of Representatives on 
April 2nd, 1886, he had this to say on Arbitra- 
tion: 

"I believe, Mr. Chairman, in arbitration as 
in principle: I believe it should prevail in the 
settlement of international differences. It rep- 
resents a higher civilization than the arbitra- 
ment of war. I believe it is in close accord with 
the best thought and sentiment of mankind; 
I believe it is the true way of settling differ- 
ences between labor and capital ; I believe it will 
bring both to a better understanding, uniting 
them closer in interest, and promoting better 
relations, avoiding force, avoiding unjust ex- 
actions and oppession, avoiding the loss of 
earnings to labor, avoiding disturbances to 
trade, and transportation, and if this House 
can contribute in the smallest measure, by leg- 
islative expression or otherwise, to these ends, 
it will deserve and receive the gratitude of all 
men who love peace, good order, justice and 
fair play." 

At the eleventh annual banquet of the Home 
Market Club, of Boston, Mass., on the i8th of 
February, 1899, McKinley spoke on the future 
of the Philippines. In closing that speech he 
said: 

"No imperial designs lurk in the American 
mind. They are alien to American sentiment, 
thought and purpose. Our prices as principles 



A iBio graphical Study 103 



undergo no change under a tropical sun. They 
go with the flag. They are wrought in every 
one of its sacred folds and are inextinguishable 
in its shining stars. 

*' 'Why read ye not the changeless truth, 
The free can conquer but to save/ 

"If we can benefit these remote peoples, who 
will object? If in the years of the future they 
are established in government under law and 
liberty, who will regret our perils and saci- 
fices? Who will not rejoice in our heroism and 
humanity ? 

"Always perils, and always after them 
safety; always darkness and clouds, but always 
shining through them the light and the sun- 
shine; always cost and sacrifice, but always 
after them the fruition of liberty, education 
and civilization. 

*T have no light or knowledge not common 
to my countrymen. I do not prophesy. The 
present is all-absorbing to me, but I cannot 
bound my vision by the bloodstained trenches 
around Manila, where every red drop, whether 
from the veins of an American soldier or a 
misguided Filipino, is anguish to my heart; but 
by the broad range of future years, when that 
group of islands, under the impulse of the year 
just passed, shall become the gems and glories 
of those tropical seas; a land of plenty and of 



104 William McKinley 

increasing possibilities; a people redeemed 
from savage indolence and habits, devoted to 
the arts of peace, in touch with the commerce 
and trade of all nations, enjoying the blessings 
of freedom, of civil and religious liberty, of 
education and of homes, and whose children 
and children's children shall for ages hence 
bless the American Republic because it emanci- 
pated and redeemed their fatherland and set 
them in the pathway of the world's best civ- 
1^ ilization." 

"And on April 2ist, 1900, his missionary ad- 
(dress at Carnegie Hall, New York City, is 
worth quoting: 

*'I am glad of the opportunity to offer with- 
out stint my tribute of praise and respect to 
the missionary effort which has wrought such 
wonderful triumphs for civilization. 

*The story of the Christian missions is one 
of thrilling interest and marvelous results. The 
services and sacrifices of the missionaries for 
their fellowmen constitute one of the most 
glorious pages of the world's history. The mis- 
sionary of whatever church or ecclesiastical 
body, who devotes his life to the service of the 
Master and of men, carrying the torch of truth 
and enlightenment, deserves the gratitude, the 
support and the homage of mankind. 

"The noble, self-sacrificing, willing minis- 
ters of peace and good-will should be classed 
with the world's heroes. Wielding the sword 



A Biographical Study 105 



of the spirit, they have conquered ignorance 
and prejudice. They have been among the 
pioneers of civilization. They have illumined 
the darkness of idolatry and superstititon with 
the light of intelligence and trust. They have 
been messengers of righteousness and love. 
They have braved disease and danger and 
death, and in their exile have suffered unspeak^ 
able hardships; but their noble spirits have 
never wavered. They count their labor no 
sacrifice; 'away with the word in such a view 
and with such a thought!' says David Liv- 
ingstone; 'it is emphatically no sacrifice; say, 
rather, it is a privilege.' They furnish us ex- 
amples of forbearance, fortitude, of patience 
and unyielding purpose, and of spirit which 
triumphs not by force of might, but by the 
persuasive majesty of right. They are placing 
in the hands of their brothers less fortunate 
than themselves the keys which unlock the 
treasures of knowledge and open the mind to 
noble aspirations for better conditions. 

"Education is one of the indispensable steps 
of mission enterprise, and in some form must 
precede all successful work. Who can esti- 
mate their value to the progress of nations? 
Their contribution to the onward and upward 
march of humanity is beyond all calculation. 
They have inculcated industry and taught the 
various trades. They have promoted concord 
and amity and have brought nations and races 



iio6 William McKinley 



closer together. They have made men better. 
They have increased the regard for home ; have 
strengthened the sacred ties of family; have 
made the community well-ordered, and their 
work has been a potent influence in the devel- 
opment of law and the establishment of gov- 
ernment. May this great meeting rekindle the 
spirit of missionary ardor and enthusiasm to 
go teach all nations, and may the field never 
lack a succession of heralds who shall carry on 
the task — the continuous proclamation of His 
gospel to the end of time." 

It was a great convention of missionary 
workers. The evening meeting at which Pres- 
ident McKinley made the above address was 
presided over iDy ex-President Benjamin Har- 
rison. President Roosevelt, then Governor of 
the State of New York, also made an address. 
McKinley's address made a deep impression 
on the audience, and was heartily applauded. 

McKinley's second inaugural address was 
considered one of the most inspiring, lucid and 
capable of his many State papers. 

The part which brought forth the most ap- 
plause and which the President himself was 
most eloquent at was the closing, when he said : 
''Our countrymen should not be deceived. We 
are now waging war against the inhabitants 
of the Philippine Islands. A portion of them 
are making war against the United States. 

**By far the greater portion of the inhabi- 



COPYRIGHT BY J. C. HEMMENl 




PRESIDENT McKINLEY DELIVERING HIS FIRST INAUGURAL SPEECH 
Reproduced by courtesy of Collier's Weekly. 



A Biographical Study 107 

tants recognize American sovereignty, and 
welcome it as a guaranty of order and of se- 
curity for life, property, liberty, freedom of 
conscience and the pursuit of happiness. To 
them full protection will be given. They shall 
not be abandoned. We will not leave the des- 
tiny of the loyal millions in the islands to the 
disloyal thousands who are against the United 
States. Order under civil institutions will 
come as soon as those who now break the peace 
shall keep it. Force will not be needed or used 
when those who make war against us shall 
make it no more. 

*'May it end without further bloodshed, and 
there be ushered in the reign of peace to be 
made permanent by a government of liberty 
under law !'' 

President McKinley's last speech was his 
greatest. As he stood there, on the platform 
at the Pan-American Exposition, in the city 
of Buffalo, it was a supreme hour of a life 
which was in every way triumphant. 

The closing words of that last public speech 
on earth outlined his national policy for the 
great nation which he was so soon to leave. 
The words of sentiment and patriotic aspira- 
tion were in accord with the nation's history, 
and it duly marked the culmination of his de- 
velopment and power in statesmanship. 

*'Let us ever remember that our interest is 
in concord, not conflict; and that our real em- 



io8 William McKinley 

inence rests in the victories of peace, not those 
of war. We hope that all who are represented 
here may be moved to higher and nobler efforts 
for their own and the world's good, and that 
out of this city may come not only greater 
commerce and trade for us all, but more essen- 
tial than these, relations of mutual respect, con- 
fidence and friendship which will deepen and 
endure. 

''Our earnest prayer is that God will gra- 
ciously vouchsafe prosperity, happiness and 
peace to all our neighbors, and like blessings 
to all the people and powers of earth.'* 

Such was McKinley the orator. His pub- 
lic addresses not only showed an insight into 
governmental affairs which equalled few 
statesmen of his age, but they were sparkling 
word-gems, revealing alike his rhetorical brill- 
iancy and his love for all humanity. 



CHAPTER V. 

A PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET. 

DURING the days intervening between a 
Presidential election and the inaugu- 
ration, the man who has been exalted 
by his countrymen to the highest 
post of honor in the land is besieged by many 
persons, with all kinds of wants, and many 
other duties are required of him; but if he 
wishes the future administration to be a suc- 
cessful one, the question which most perplexes 
him and for which all his energy, tact and 
adroitness must be manifested, is the choice of 
his Cabinet. 

That body of men constitutes the most im- 
portant part of any administration. It is im- 
perative that its choice should be so made that 
all sections of the country be represented. It 
is even more necessary that the gentlemen 
chosen should be not only men of high rank 
as statesmen, but that they be eminently fitted 
for the respective departments for which they 
are selected. It is, indeed, a most difficult task 
and one not to be envied. All of our Presi- 
dents have taken great care in the selection of 
their cabinets. 



no William McKinley 

It is said that when President McKinley 
was inaugurated John Hay was his first choice 
for the office of Secretary of State, but cir- 
cumstances, however, required another ap- 
pointment. It fell to the Hon. John Sher- 
man, ex-Secretary of the Treasury in General 
Harrison's Cabinet, and at the time United 
States Senator from Ohio. Mr. Sherman was 
a statesman of high rank, a man whose views 
were sought; one who was a loyal Repub- 
lican and an upright and honest citizen. But 
tMr. Sherman, when he took up the cares of 
the office, was by no means a young man, and 
its responsibilities weighed on him, and ere 
long he was compelled to relinquish the office 
and retire to private life. The President's 
bosom friend and his neighbor in Canton, the 
Hon. William R. Day, then Assistant Secre- 
tary of State, succeeded him. Judge Day was 
and is a modest, unassuming gentleman, but he 
is a man of profound judgment and of vast 
capabilities. A man who had rendered excel- 
lent service as Assistant Secretary of State and 
was well qualified to be elevated to the premier- 
ship. 

Just here it might be of interest to quote an 
incident told by Charles Emory Smith, illus- 
trating the President's sense of humor. 

Says Mr. Smith : 

"In the higher and gayer humor he had a 
deft touch. Judge Day, after his splendid ser- 



^ Biographical Study iii 



vice as Assistant Secretary and Secretary of 
State, had been appointed President of the 
Peace Commission that was about to leave for 
Paris, and was attending his last Cabinet ses- 
son. 

"For eighteen months he had really managed 
the State Department under trying conditions 
with signal skill and judgment. He had been 
the lifelong friend and neighbor of the Presi- 
dent, who knew his great capabilities, and had 
called him from his vicinage to high respon- 
sibilities. 

"In that closing hour of his Cabinet service 
there were mutual expressions of good-will 
and of regret at the coming separation. ^ Judge 
Bay was not without his facetious vein. In 
a playful spirit he proffered his sympathies to 
his associates, who were about to lose his coun- 
sel, and, the most modest of men as he was 
and is, remarked that he didn't know how they 
were going to get along without him. 'Well/ 
said the President, with that most serious as- 
pect which he put on when he was most in 
fun, 'as every change in the Cabinet had been 
an improvement, perhaps we can stand it.' 

"The tables were turned on Judge Day, and 
no one joined in the laugh more heartily than 
he did. The two devoted and admirmg friends 
could safely chaff each other." , ^ , 

Upon Judge Day's departure from the Cab- 
inet, and after Colonel John Hay had served 



112 William McKinley 

eighteen months as Ambassador to the Court 
of St. James, he was recalled and placed at the 
head of the State portfolio. Of all Secretaries 
of State, perhaps in John Hay was combined 
the genius of the diplomat and the statesman 
to a greater degree than any of his predeces- 
sors with the exception of Webster and Blaine. 

On one occasion an Ambassador of a Euro- 
pean power, when asked to name the Minister 
for Foreign Affairs who administered his office 
with the greatest ability, replied, without a 
moment's hesitation, ''I should say Mr. John 
Hay, your Secretary of State.'' 

At the time of Mr. McKinley's election the 
country was at large more interested and anx- 
ious as to the appointment of Secretary of the 
Treasury than any other. The condition of 
the national resources were such that the selec- 
tion of this appointment was far from an easy 
one, and yet with that skill of his judgment of 
men, which was one of his most striking char- 
acteristics, the President soon solved the diffi- 
cult problem. He was anxious to find a man 
with broad and catholic views, who was well 
versed in business affairs as well as familiar 
with financial questions ; a man of strong ideas 
and who had the courage of his convictions ; a 
man who did not represent any particular sec- 
tion of the country, who had no prejudices, and 
whose one ambition or aim was to serve the 
whole country, irrespective of party ; a man of 



A Biographical Study 113 

culture, high and lofty integrity and of intel- 
lectual powers of the first order. 

To find a man with those qualifications was 
no easy matter ; yet all these requirements were 
met in the Chicago banker, the Hon. Lyman J. 
Gage. 

Mr. Gage made a most admirable official, 
and he will go down in history alongside our 
greatest Secretary of the Treasury. 

The next thing in order is the Secretary of 
War. When Mr. McKinley made this choice, 
he little thought that part of his administration 
would be taken up with the problems of war. 

This department was intrusted to Russell A. 
Alger, of Michigan, a man of fine personalty 
and winsome manner ; a true and loyal friend, 
and a man fully capable of the arduous duties 
of the office. 

Like Lincoln, President McKinley was a 
student of men. No man during his genera- 
tion so well knew the lives of the public men 
as he did. He could intuitively perceive the 
latent genius of a man long before others, and 
if he were convinced in his own mind that the 
man was all right no power on earth could 
change his conviction for a moment. This 
was admirably shown in the case of his Secre- 
tary of War. At a time when all the country 
was crying for the dismissal of that officer the 
President remained firm, and would not yield 
to the pressure. Even the Secreary himself 



114 William McKinley 

besought the President to allow him to resign 
to protect the party ; but no, the President was 
satisfied, and he would not consider the propo- 
sition under any circumstances. 

On August I, 1899, after the close of the 
war, Secretary Alger did resign, and was re- 
placed by Mr. Elihu Root, of New York City. 

At first this appointment did not meet with 
entire approval. "Who is this Root ?'' was the 
question asked. "What has he done?'* etc. 
But the President again knew his man, and a 
few months after the President's selection was 
applauded by all, and it is now conceded that 
Elihu Root, at present our Secretary of State, 
made one of the most efficient of Secretaries 
that the War Department has had in years. 

As to the Attorney-Generalship, McKinley 
gave the place to Joseph McKenna, of Califor- 
nia. He was a lawyer of marked ability. He 
was admitted to the bar in 1865. He was twice 
elected District-Attorney for Solano County, 
then served two terms in the lower house of 
the Legislature of his State, then four terms 
in Congress, resigning from the latter body to 
accept the position of United States Circuit 
Judge, to which he was appointed by President 
Harrison in 1893. That was his record when 
President McKinley tendered him the Attor- 
ney-Generalship in his Cabinet. On January 
26th, 1898, he retired from the Cabinet to ac- 
cept at the hands of his Chief a seat on the 



A Biographical Study 115 

Supreme Court bench. He in turn was suc- 
ceeded by John W. Griggs, of New Jersey, 
who resigned the Governorship of that State 
to enter the Cabinet. After a little more than 
three years of excellent service in the Cabinet 
business interests made it imperative that he 
should resign, so on April 9th, 1 901, Mr. Phil- 
ander C. Knox, of Pennsylvania, was sworn 
into office as Attorney-General. He retained 
the post until after President McKinley's 
death. 

James A. Gary, of Indiana, was made Post- 
master-General. He was a gentleman of fine 
qualities, and possessed a keen mind. He was 
succeeded in 1898 by the Hon. Charles Emory 
Smith, of Philadelphia. This appointment at 
once gave universal satisfaction. Mr. Smith 
had a wide acquaintance with public men and 
affairs, was a personal friend of the Presi- 
dent's, having stumped the State of Ohio with 
Mr. McKinley when the latter ran for Gov- 
ernor of that State. In 1898 President Har- 
rison appointed Mr. Smith Minister to Russia, 
which office he resigned after having served 
two years. While he was in that country he 
was extremely active in the relief work of the 
great famine in 1891 and 1892, and had sole 
charge of contributions that came from Ameri- 
ca of over $100,000 in money and several ship- 
loads of goods. 

Mr. Smith is a most genial and courteous 



Ii6 William McKinley 

man to meet. He possesses many of the qual- 
ities of his Chief. He made a most popular 
Postmaster-General, and was invariably con- 
sulted on many questions of great importance 
which did not relate to his department. His 
vast experience as a teacher, editor, diplomat 
and man of affairs entitled him to rank as one 
of our best known public men. 

The Secretaryship of the Navy was allotted 
to the ex-Congressman and ex-Governor of 
Massachusetts, the Hon. John D. Long. 

This appointment proved to be one of Mc- 
Kinley's best. Mr. Long conducted the affairs 
of our Navy Department during a most trying 
time. Through his labors the service was 
brought up to a standard of efficiency second to 
none in the world. No man had better right 
to feel proud of his work when he laid down 
the cares of office than John D. Long. He 
served throughout President McKinley's entire 
term of office. 

President McKinley appointed as his Secre- 
tary of the Interior the Hon. Cornelius N. 
Bliss, of New York. Mr. Bliss was a thor- 
ough business man, and well fitted for the head 
of the Interior Department. On February 
20th, 1899, he was succeeded by Ethan Allen 
Hitchcock, of Missouri, another man of wide 
business interests, and one who had discharged 
the duties of his office in a most satisfactory 
manner. 



A Biographical Study 117 

And for Secretary of Agriculture the Hon. 
James Wilson, of Iowa, was selected, a man 
who had been engaged in practical farming; 
who had been in the State Legislature as well 
as the national House of Representatives. For 
six years prior to his elevation in President 
McKinley's Cabinet he was director of the 
Agricultural Experiment Station and professor 
of agriculture at the Iowa Agricultural College 
at Ames. This brief biographical sketch will 
show that the choice of Mr. Wilson to head the 
Agricultural Department was a good one. It 
is a singular coincidence that Mr. Wilson is 
still retained in the Cabinet by President 
Roosevelt, and that the men who entered with 
him have either passed away or resigned. 

The wisdom of his appointment was re- 
vealed in the fact that President Roosevelt 
stiU wishes him to remain at his council board. 

(When one scans the names of men whom 
President McKinley appointed to his Cabinet 
table he will see that those selected were men 
of brains and of eminence in their respective 
lines. When everything is taken into consid- 
eration, no President had a better or more effi- 
cient Cabinet than he. It has been said by one 
of the President's closest friends that "there 
was not a detail or a situation in any branch 
of the government with which he came in con- 
tact that he did not fully fathom and master." 

The President was an attentive listener and 



Ii8 William McKinley 

an earnest seeker after the truth of any sub- 
ject. He had strong opinions of his own, but 
his course at the Cabinet meetings would be 
to seek his advisors' opinions first, so that he 
could ascertain their individual feelings before 
expressing his own. 

His Postmaster-General, Charles E. Smith, 
has given us a near view of McKinley in re- 
gard to his manner at Cabinet meetings when 
he says that McKinley "at the Cabinet table 
was suggestive, fertile and wise. Sometimes 
he led discussion, quite as often he first elicited 
the views of his counselors. He recognized 
and treated his Cabinet as advisers in the full- 
est sense of the word, not as mere recorders 
and executives of his will. He sought and re- 
spected their independent judgment. It was 
quite his habit with them, as with others, to 
draw out their opinion before he had indicated 
his own, so that he secured their unbiased ex- 
pression. He was receptive and responsive, 
but not pliant. He acorded full weight to all 
that was said, but he formed his own convic- 
tions. No man was more judicial and sane in 
summing varied views and deducing the wisest 
conclusion. His pre-eminence in the council 
was unchallenged." 

Although eminent counselors may surround 
a President at his Cabinet table, men in some 
hues perhaps greater than the President him- 
self ; that is, finer statesmen, men better skilled 



A Biographical Study 119 

in public affairs, or perhaps as lawyers whose 
minds were keener or more adroit than their 
Chief, or statesmen whose greatness is innate. 
Yet the President, and he alone, is responsible 
for the success or failure of the administra- 
tion. The public always looks and expects the 
President to guide and direct the destiny of the 
nation while he is at the head of government. 

President McKinley well understood the im- 
portance of his position, and he was not 
weighed down by its cares; on the contrary, 
the more he had to do the kinder would be his 
manner and the more gracious his attitude. 
As Lincoln was the dominating spirit in his 
Cabinet, so was McKinley the magnetic leader 
and gallant defender of American interests in 
his Cabinet. 

He always espoused the cause wherein he 
believed his duty lay, and I do not hesitate to 
express the opinion as a deliberate judgment 
that his sole purpose in life was to do the thing 
that was right as it was given him to see the 
right. Political ambition which he possessed 
never sprang from selfish motives, but his life- 
long aim was the best good of his country and 
of all humanity. 

On one occasion he remarked to his friend, 
Senator Hanna: "There are some things, 
Mark, I would not do and cannot do, even to 
become President of the United States." 

The question whether the Philippines should 



120 William McKinley 

be kept or allowed to pass from our jurisdiction 
was one of the most perplexing problems on 
which the President and his Cabinet had to 
meet. I will again quote from Charles Em- 
ory Smith, who has written very clearly and 
vividly on this matter. He says : 

*'When did President McKinley decide to 
keep the whole Philippine archipelago? Was 
this his original determination, or did he grow 
up to it with the progress of events and the 
development of discussion? What were the 
controlling considerations which influenced his 
final judgment? What was his own personal 
feeling? These questions are often asked, and 
the answer is full of historic interest and per- 
sonal illumination. 

"The protocol, which was signed August 
1 2th, 1898, left the future of the Philippines 
open and undetermined. The language was 
chosen with deliberation and care. The fifth 
stipulation provided for the ocupation by the 
United States of the city and harbor of Ma- 
nila pending the conclusion of a treaty of peace 
which should determine the control, disposition 
and government of the Philippines. Every 
word was studied and weighed. To leave the 
'control' and 'disposition' of the Philippines 
for the final determination of the treaty was 
to leave their fate unsettled till then. This was 
done advisedly. 

"The President had not at that time reached 



A Biographical Study 121 

a definite conclusion, and he deemed it prudent 
to reserve freedom of action. Three Hues of 
action were possible. The first was the estab- 
lishment simply of a naval and military sta- 
tion. The second was the retention of the 
single island of Luzon. The third was the 
acquisition of the whole archipelago. No one 
proposed to abandon the opportunity we had 
gained in the Philippines without at least re- 
serving a base for naval necessities. There 
were a few who suggested some such location 
as the Subig Bay, where a new American es- 
tablishment could be created, and deprecated 
the absorption of any old town with its popu- 
lation and connections; but they were very 
limited in number. It was generally recog- 
nized that, as we were in full possession of the 
city and bay of Manila, that foothold should 
at least be held. 

"With what justification, indeed, could it 
be turned back to the domination and oppres- 
sion of Spain? If the United States withdrew 
from Manila, Spanish authority must be reas- 
serted. There was no other. That would 
mean not only the characteristics of Spanish 
rule, but the reopening of revolt and war. 

'The knowledge of that inevitable conse- 
quence brought a general perception and ac- 
knowledgment that nothing less than the re- 
tention of Manila was admissible. But when 
so much was granted, it immediately faced an- 



122 William McKinley 

other question. How could Manila be wisely 
separated from the island of which it was the 
heart and life? How could London be politi- 
cally and commercially dissevered from Eng- 
land? or Brooklyn from Long Island? Must 
not the city have its hinterland ? Must not the 
country have its outlet? Was not the connec- 
tion of so close a character that the interests 
of both demanded that they should be to- 
gether ? 

*That argument led to the conclusion that 
the United States must take Luzon. But be- 
tween the adoption of Luzon and that of the 
whole archipelago there was apparently a mar- 
gin for difference of opinion. Necessity 
seemed to compel the first, but moderation 
prompted that the demand should be bounded 
by those limits, if the line could be logically 
drawn. Accordingly, in the general letter of 
instructions with which the President sent the 
Peace Commissioners on their momentous er- 
rand, he said that the United States cannot ac- 
cept less than the cession of Luzon. Whether 
more should be taken was left for develop- 
ments. 

"Nearly six weeks intervened from the first 
instruction before the final issue of the Philip- 
pines was reached. It was a time of investiga- 
tion, reflection and discussion. A majority of 
the Peace Commissioners in Paris came to the 
decided conviction that it would be a naval, po- 



A Biographical Study 123 

litical and commercial mistake to divide the 
archipelago, and made a strong representation 
to the President to that effect. The informa- 
tion which came to him from the officers in 
command pointed to the same conclusion. The 
more the question was studied the greater ap- 
peared the difficulties of division and the more 
imperative the reasons for limiting the choice 
to the whole of the archipelago or none. 

"The group is naturally a geographical and 
political unit. The islands are close together, 
and for the most part interdependent. Manila 
is the commercial centre of all. It would be 
as easy to hold the whole as a part. If we 
took Luzon and turned the other islands back 
to Spain they would immediately flame with 
revolt against which Spain would be impotent, 
and we should be compelled, in self-protection 
and on grounds of humanity, to intervene. It 
was morally certain, moreover, that if the title 
were left with Spain she would sell and trans- 
fer her islands to another and stronger Euro- 
pean nation, and we should be confronted with 
a powerful rival side by side in the same group 
dividing authority and responsibility. The 
dangers of such a divided control among a 
people naturally related were manifest and in- 
admissible. 

*These considerations finally decided the 
President to require the cession of the whole 
archipelago. When he reached that conclu- 



124 William McKinley 

sion he was clear and unwavering. There 
were critical moments in the negotiations at 
Paris — moments when even our Commission- 
ers feared that the conference would break up 
and the treaty fail. The tension of those hours 
was extreme, and was calculated to make even 
the strongest men quiver and ask themselves 
whether some concession should not be sought. 
But again, as in the crisis of the Santiago cam- 
paign, the President was firm and unfaltering. 
He was wilKng that a reasonable pecuniary al- 
lowance should be made for any fair claim that 
compromised no principle; but once convinced 
that safety required our control of the whole 
of the Philippines, he held fast to that ground. 
''There can be no doubt that he came to this 
view with great reluctance. It was against his 
personal feeling and predisposition. He had 
no ambition, so far as his frankest talk in the 
innermost circle of friendship revealed, for 
more territorial acquisition. 

3f» -fC ^ 2|? SfC ]^ 

"Besides his freedom from territorial greed, 
he saw that the acquisition of the Philippines 
would open difficult and perplexing problems. 
He thus approached it with real hesitation, and 
if he could have seen a way of avoiding it com- 
patible with honor and duty, he would have 
been glad to do so. He knew that popular 
sentiment was for expansion over the Philip- 
pines. This became plain during his Western 



A Biographical Study 125 

tour while the issue was unsettled. It has 
some times been said, indeed, that he made 
that journey among the people to ascertain 
their feeling, and that their demonstration de- 
termined his course. What is much nearer the 
truth is that he led public sentiment quite as 
much as public sentiment led him, and the pop- 
ular manifesations on that journey were in re- 
sponse to the keynotes he struck. 

*'He realized the vital importance of popular 
support, especially in a new departure on a 
great national experiment. 

"Coming to the conclusion that it was a ne- 
cessity, he touched the popular chords, and was 
undoubtedly encouraged and strengthened in 
his course by the public approval. But it is 
equally true that a popular sentiment in favor 
of holding the Philippines would not have car- 
ried him for that policy unless he had felt it 
to be a duty. Thoroughly man of the people 
as he was, few men were less swayed by mere 
momentary and ephemeral currents. He could 
look beyond the fleeting and superficial im- 
pulses of the hour to the calm judgment of the 
future. And thus his conclusion to hold the 
Philippines was not moulded by popular opin- 
ion, but was his final conviction as a statesman 
and rather against his personal preposses- 
sions." 

There was never a more fearless man than 
William McKinley after he had proven in his 



126 William McKinley 

own mind that his course was right ; but even 
so, he would give the pubHc a chance to be 
heard even after his mind had been made up. 
It was just this phase of his character that was 
so much misunderstood. He was not blunt in 
his manner, but he was none the less strong 
and fearless because he was gentle in his deal- 
ings with men. ^ Just here I desire to quote 
from an address delivered by President Schur- 
man, of Cornell University, at Ithaca, N. y. 
He says: "Strong as he was, and firm to 
the point of obstinacy, yet he was so deferen- 
tial to the judgment of others, so willing to lis- 
ten to everybody, so truly democratic in his 
search for truth and wisdom, that his very lack 
of dogmatic self-conceit and even the delib- 
erateness of his method were at first construed 
as signs of weakness, and in the early days of 
his Presidency it was not uncommon criticism 
that he had no mind of his own." 

"Never was there a greater mistake, as the 
men who came closest to him will universally 
testify. His Cabinet was made up of strong 
men, but the President dominated the Cabinet. 
He saw everybody, heard everybody, but fol- 
lowed nobody. 

"Yet, somehow, he was the leader of all, and 
all fell into line and marched behind or beside 
him. He acquainted himself with all the facts 
of a given case, listened to all manner of ad- 
vice from those who might be supposed to 



A Biographical Study 127 

know all about it, even suffering fools gladly, 
and then reached a decision or adopted a policy 
of his own, which, being well considered, was 
sure to command general assent. It was his 
own views, yet it was the quintessence of the 
public mind. He was the greatest inductive 
philosopher who ever experimented with 
American politics, and it did not take the 
American people long to discover his method, 
or to show their appreciation of it. Even be- 
fore his re-election, the talk that he lacked in- 
dependence of judgment had entirely ceased 
I have dwelt on this point because it is here 
that MciKnley suffered most injustice at 
hands of his critics." 

On the great public questions the President 
would be more deliberate, more cautious in the 
way in which he arrived at his conclusions. 
He used to say, to quote again from Mr. 
Smith, ''that when all the members who com- 
prised his Cabinet had reached a conclusion on 
any subject, it was most generally sure to be 
the right conclusion." 

As has already been stated, Mr. McKinley 
was unusually careful in the selection of ap- 
pointments. He took the greatest pains to 
avail himself of the right man for the right 
place. 

On one occasion a gentleman who had re- 
ceived an important appointment came hurry- 
ingly to the White House to explain to the 



; here lu 
It the j II 



128 William McKinley ^ 

President that he did not agree on some of the 
President's poHcies, and said that he no doubt 
would want to appoint another man who 
thought as the President did. "You are just 
the man I want," replied the President. It 
did not matter with him whether the man was 
for or against the policies of the administra- 
tion. He was only looking for the best man 
for the place. 

In speaking of the President's appointments, 
Mr. Charles K Smith says : *'The great body 
of appointments are not brought before the 
Cabinet, but are considered and determined be- 
tween the President and the particular member 
in charge. But the important appointments 
of a really national character are often the sub- 
ject of general conference and careful discus- 
sion by the whole Cabinet. President McKin- 
ley, who had an unusually large number of 
such selections to make, like the Paris Peace 
Commission, deliberately canvassed every 
name with all his advisers. And it is worthy 
of note how little, when they are thus treated, 
mere political or personal considerations weigh 
£ind how the single question of fitness becomes 
decisive." 

There were strong minds in President Mc- 
Kinley's Cabinet — minds that were different 
from the President's, and minds that would 
naturally reach different conclusions — but there 



A Biographical Study 129 

was not that divided sentiment which charac- 
terized the Cabinet of Mr. Lincoln. 

McKinley's Cabinet always respected the 
President's judgment, while at first Mr. Lin- 
coln's advisers were unmindful of Lincoln's 
logical perceptions and moral leadership, al- 
though they soon realized that his rugged and 
uncouth exterior was only the outward man- 
tle, and within there existed a mentality 
equalled by none of his day and generation. 

We learn from the records now that Presi- 
dent McKinley's Cabinet was divided just 
prior to the Spanish-American War; that some 
of its members sympathized with the war 
party, while the others were opposed to the 
war. And says Mr. Smith : "The Presi- 
dent's policy in that crisis was his own, guided, 
first of all, by his own strong convictions, and 
then moulded by events which controlled him. 
Again, at a crucial point, he had to decide 
whether the Philippines should be retained or 
not. With some division at first, his Cabinet 
came to concur in his conclusion; but in such 
a transcendent issue he knew that conscience 
and history would hold him to his own per- 
sonal responsibility, and however much he may 
have felt strengthened by the concurrence of 
his advisers, he had in the last resort to rely 
on his own independent insight and judg- 
ment." 

William McKinley was by far a greater and 



130 William McKinley 

wiser man than some of his critics will ad- 
mit. It is not claimed that he was a second 
Webster or Clay or Calhoun, but it is main- 
tained that he was a statesman and political 
leader of high rank. 

The popular appreciation of his career was 
at first slow in its growth, but after he became 
President his countrymen and the world looked 
upon him with more favor and with less re- 
luctance. His commanding influence and 
power over the people's minds and hearts grew 
steadily day by day ; from the hour he took the 
oath of office as President until the assassin's 
bullet ended his noble and beloved career. 

In closing this chapter let us consider for a 
moment one of the President's most predom- 
inating characteristics. It was patience ; never 
has an Executive showed it in a more marked 
way than William McKinley. 

He carried this virtue with him wherever 
he went, and it was his up to the day he re- 
ceived his **crown of martyrdom." Says a 
friend: *'If you ask the hundred of notable 
men who were frequent and solicitous visitors 
at the official mansion what quality of his char- 
acter was the most remarkable in a man of his 
many cares and anxieties, the large majority 
will answer patience — an indomitable, unvary- 
ing patience." 

*'In all the various demands for the exercise 
of his many constitutional powers, in the pres- 



A Biographical Study 131 

ence of conflicting interests and urgent repre- 
sentations, he preserved his serenity of man- 
ner and gave a patient audience outside his 
own official household. Only members of the 
Cabinet had the right of immediate admission 
to the audience chamber. Waiting Represen- 
tatives, Senators and others in official and pri- 
vate life must await their turn. The waiting 
numbers were often so large that impatience 
and nervous irritation seized them in the long 
delay, and when they were summoned they en- 
tered in a mood far from amiable. But when 
the President turned to them with his kindly 
face and tranquil manner, as if he had no bur- 
dens on his mind, and no other duty than to 
listen to his visitor, there was such a soothing 
charm in his bearing that all this irritability 
disappeared as by magic. 

"On one occasion, when a certain line of Ex- 
ecutive action was supposed to affect injurious- 
ly the interests of some constituents of a cer- 
tain Senator, the latter entered the room of 
audience with denunciatory remonstrances on 
his lips, and sv/elling with inward excitement. 
The President listened to his extravagant 
words, and advancing a step put a hand on his 
shoulder, and said, in a tone that a gentle nurse 
might use to a fretful invalid : ''Oh, no, no ; 
not so bad as that ; not so bad as that !" And 
soon reason resumed its throne. Far beyond 
any precedent this last administration had fur- 



132 William McKinley 

nished a volume of proof that "a soft answer 
turns away wrath." 

All who perchance came within his presence 
admired him at first sight. His Cabinet min- 
isters, when speaking of him to-day, refer to 
him with loving recollections. Let it be said 
that no man in the history of America was so 
universally beloved as William McKinley. His 
whole life is a theme of inspiration to the 
youth of our land. And God grant that they, 
may take pattern after him. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Mckinley in the home and as commander- 
in-chief. 

THE home — which has been called the 
most imposing and magnificent temple 
of civilization, is the very essence of 
the foundation of the Republic. When 
all the achievements and aims of man have 
crumbled into dust, the purity and the exam- 
ple of the home w411 be more renowned, more 
significant, and more far-reaching in its mis- 
sion than any other power in the annals of the 
world. The moral and material teaching of 
the home appeals to the reason of man; and 
wields his good judgment and determining 
powers for the right more than any other force 
that can be exerted. It has been said that "the 
nationalism of the world rests upon the hearth- 
stone." 

There is nothing on earth sweeter or dearer 
than an ideal home. "Be it ever so humble, 
there's no place like home." We know not 
what rank McKinley may be accorded in his- 
tory. Time alone shall determine. But there 
is one thing certain, with which all must agree, 
that his home life and his unselfish devotion 



134 William McKinley 

to his wife stood out perhaps pre-eminently 
among his other characteristics, and were 
worthy of the emulation of all. 
j McKniley's devotion to his wife was so tefi- 
der, so true, so sincere, that the story of it will 
be told for years to come. Amid the deep 
cares of public life, amid the strenuous activity 
of daily duties; in the thick of his personal 
duties and achievements, and they were many, 
he never relaxed his tender care, his sympa- 
thy and his untiring thought for her comfort 
and happiness. 

Senator Hanna once said, in regard to Mc- 
Kinley's home life, "an ideal home-body was 
William McKinley, and the American fireside 
was a shrine of worship with him." 

At his fireside, with his wife and children 
about him, the man is seen at his best. He is 
no longer the active centre of affairs; he un- 
bends from the dignified demeanor which is 
characteristic of men in their relations with 
men, and he is the devoted husband, the kind 
and affectionate father. Such was William 
McKinley. 

After Major McKinley returned from the 
war and moved to Canton, the acquaintance 
with Miss Ida Saxton, whom he had corre- 
sponded with while in the army and met on a 
former visit to Canton before the war, ripened 
into love. She was the belle of that city, and 
her father was a prominent banker and a man 





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III 1 


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'^-nnmn) ^iMMJlS ttnnnnnnTOCT^mj^^^^ji 


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Hllllltei::'^''^^ 



THE HOME OF WILLIAM McKINLEY, CANTON, OHIO 
Reproduced by courtesy of Collier's Weekly. 



A Biographical Study 135 

of considerable literary ability, being editor of 
the Canton Repository, which is still in exist- 
ence. 

Miss Saxton was thoroughly educated, hav- 
ing graduated from the Brook Hall Seminary 
at Media, Pa. Her father sent her abroad 
with her younger sister, so as to enable her to 
receive a broader view of life. Upon her re- 
turn from the foreign tour she entered her 
father's bank as cashier. 

Although Mr. Saxton was a man of con- 
siderable wealth, he had a theory that young 
girls should be taught a business that would 
make them independent, and enable them to 
support themselves if necessary. 

It has been said that the courtship of Major 
McKinley w^as very unique. He was a Meth- 
odist Sunday-school teacher and Miss Saxton 
a Bible class teacher in a Presbyterian church. 
On a street corner each Sunday they met to 
chat about their work. This continued for 
some time. One afternoon he said to her: 
"This separation each Sunday I don't like at 
all — your going one way and I another. Sup- 
pose after this we always go the same way. 
What do you think?'' 

"I think so, too," was her quick reply. 

Mr. Saxton had hoped that his daughter 
would not soon fall in love, for he wanted her 
to remain at home to brighten his declining 
years, but he said "that Major McKinley was 



1^6 William McKinley 

the only man he was willing that she should 
marry.'' Many incidents of their devotion 
during their courtship have been told by old 
friends. 

The wedding took place in the New First 
Presbyterian Church, which was hurried to 
completion for the Saxton-McKinley wedding, 
on January 25th, 187 1. 

A fac-simile of the wedding invitation fol- 
lows: 




Mr. and Mrs. James A. Saltan 

will he pleased to have you present 

at the marriage of their daughter 

Ida 

to 

William McKinley, Jr., 

Wednesday evening, January 2$th, 1871, at 

"jYi o'clock. 

First Presbyterian Church, 

Canton, Ohio. 



A Biographical Study 137 

Major McKinley's brother Abner was best 
man, and Miss Saxton's sister was maid of 
honor. The bride and groom went East on 
their wedding tour, stopping at Washington 
on their return home. 

Two Httle girls were born to them — Kate, 
on Christmas Day, 1871, and Ida, April ist, 
1873. The latter died in babyhood, and Kate 
died when she was three years and six months 
old, both keenly mourned. 

Mrs. McKinley was naturally a strong 
young woman, but the cares of motherhood 
and the death of her mother, with those of her 
little ones, brought on an illness from which 
she has never completely recovered, although 
she is ever patient, kind and good to every- 
body. She tried to be always cheerful for her 
husband's sake, and he to be happy and cheer- 
ful for her sake. What a beautiful picture 
of wedded life! 

It is said that while on his way to the inau- 
guration at Washington, the comfort of his 
wife during the journey was more to him than 
all the honors of the people who met and 
cheered him at every railroad station. To 
him she was as precious as the most costly 
jewel that ever a monarch boasted. 

He would always appeal to her. In the 
evening, when they were sitting alone in the 
Red Room at the White House, she with her 
knitting and he reading to her, and a card 



138 William McKinley 

would be brought in, the President would say, 
*'Ida, shall we see them?" 

When Major McKinley was in Congress he 
would work at the Capitol all day, and when 
closing hours came would return to his hotel, 
the Ebbitt House in Washington, and draw 
a chair beside Mrs. McKinley's, and relate to 
her what had gone on during the day. When 
dinner was announced, they would regularly 
proceed together to the dining-room. This 
was told by an eye-witness, who said that it 
was repeated day after day. It has been said 
by those who knew them well that they were 
''a pair of old-fashioned lovers from first to 
last." 

A story is told of how one day an autograph 
album was laid before the President for his sig- 
nature. Many of these albums came to the 
President daily, and he was supposed to place 
his name on the first page. In this particular 
case, it is said, the President noticed the pic- 
ture of a flower on every page, and just be- 
neath each picture was a verse. He turned 
over the pages until he came to the one which 
had a pansy on it. The pansy is Mrs. Mc- 
Kinley's favorite flower, and on this page read 
the sentiment: 

*'You cannot guess the power 
Of a little simple flower/' 




KATIE Mckinley, the president's daughter, who died at the 

AGE OF THREE AND A HALF 



Reproduced by courtesy of Collier's Weekly. 



A Biographical Study 139 

The President took up his pen and wrote 
beneath the verse ^'William McKinley," and 
sent the album back to its owner. 

While Governor of Ohio McKinley had 
rooms in the Chittenden House, in Columbus, 
directly opposite the State House. He always 
left the hotel by a side entrance to avoid no- 
tice, and cross the street, after which he would 
lift his hat, and a handkerchief would flutter 
from his window at the hotel. This was re- 
peated every evening as well. 

On Sunday the Governor would take the 
train to Canton and a®company his mother to 
the First Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Although McKinley had no training, he 
nevertheless loved music. It is said that "any- 
thing from a hurdy-gurdy to a grand opera 
would please him; he would keep time with 
his hands and enjoy every bit of it.'* 

Senator Hanna wrote of McKinley's gen- 
erosity in these words : "A man of more gen- 
erous impulses than McKinley never lived. 
When cases were presented to him for relief 
that were beyond his ability to meet he would 
apply to me or some of his friends for some 
assistance in aiding worthy persons, and his 
friends were always glad to respond to these 
appeals. He was liberal without stint. It 
gave him actual physical pain to see any one 
suffering or in distress, and on such occasions 
showed his great faith in friendship, never hes- 



140 William McKinley 

itating to go to any bounds in an appeal for 
others." 

A story is told that he was traveHng on one 
occasion when a man approached him and a 
wealthy friend sitting by his side for money 
for a worthy cause. McKinley pulled out 
from his pocket a fifty-dollar bill and a five; 
he gave the fifty-dollar bill to the man, and 
placed back in his pocket the five, while the 
millionaire gave a ten-dollar bill. 

An act which occurred during his last and 
tragic visit to Buffalo will illustrate the simple 
manner and graciousness of the man. On the 
day before the assassination the President 
started out of the Milburn House for an early 
morning stroll; the weather was very bright 
and beautiful. As he turned out from Dela- 
ware Avenue into a side street he stopped in 
front of a house where a laborer was cutting 
the grass with a lawn mower. He engaged the 
man in conversation. The President asked 
him the cost and workmanship of the different 
kinds of mowers and other little details of the 
man's calling. While he stood there talking 
a street sweeper came along, and he, too, was 
stopped by the President and drawn into the 
conversation, all of which had reference to the 
work in which the men were engaged. Just 
as he was about to leave he put his hand into 
his pocket, and, pulling out two one-dollar 
bills, presented one to each of the men, asking 



A Biographical Study 141 

them to accept them as a token of the good- 
will of the President of the United States. 

This little deed of kindness and pathos was 
the last that President McKinley did in his 
capacity as a private citizen. The two men 
were much touched when they related this sim- 
ple story of the great and kind-hearted man 
who was so soon to go home to his reward. 

Even the little children loved him. It is re- 
lated of a little boy that on the night before 
Mr. McKinley died he said to his mother: 
"You needn't wake me, mama, if President 
McKinley dies. I don't want to see any *Ex- 
tras,' for I never loved any other President 
half so well as I love him." The newsboys 
loved him, for they knew he was their friend. 
When he met them on the street he would al- 
most always stop and buy papers from them. 

Another of those acts of his illustrating the 
kindly and gracious side of his nature, that 
never could be concealed, occurred on the fate- 
ful day when he made the rounds of the Ex-« 
position Buildings at Buffalo. While passing 
one of the booths in the Agricultural Building 
the young lady in charge, Miss Antoinette Witt, 
attracted his attention. He stopped, shook her 
hand, spoke with his charming smile a few 
words of well-wishing, and presented to her a 
rich bouquet of American Beauties, which had 
been given him shortly before. Then he passed 
rapidly on, but the young lady was the hero of 



1.42 William McKinley 

the day, and cherishes the recollection fondly. 

Another incident occurred on the day of his 
funeral which is so pathetic and so beautiful 
a picture that it cannot be too often told. 

It was that incident of the little girl of un- 
known name who on the day when the remains 
of William McKinley were laid at rest in Can- 
ton was found just at dusk at the entrance 
gate of the cemetery in Atlanta, Ga. She had 
been waiting there for some time, for in her 
hands were tightly clutched a bunch of waited 
wild flowers. She had heard that her beloved 
President, whom all loved, was to be buried 
that afternoon, and she had come to the only 
burial place of which she knew to place on 
his bier a tender token of her love and esteem. 

As Antony said of Brutus, so of him : ''His 
life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in 
him that Nature might stand up and say to 
all the world, 'This is a man !' " 

Nothing would delight the President better 
after the hours of work than to have a number 
of his close friends to dinner. After dinner 
he and his friends would talk into the early 
hours of the morning. McKinley loved a 
good joke, and when he laughed he would 
laugh heartily all over. It is said that he was 
a perfect boy in his capacity for merriment. 

He liked to go to the theatre, and would al- 
ways avail himself of the opportunity if there 
was a good play on. His favorite dramas 



A Biographical Study 143 

were "Rip Van Winkle" and the "Cricket on 
the Hearth." He enjoyed meeting all the 
prominent actors, and was especially fond of 
Mr. Joseph Jefferson. The noted actors would 
always call at the White House when in Wash- 
ington. McKinley also enjoyed Shakespeare- 
an plays. He said he received a great deal 
of good from a good play, and to attend the 
theatre was a relaxation from his public cares. 

President McKinley was not what is called 
an athlete. He enjoyed recreation, however, 
being a good walker, and taking daily drives 
with Mrs. McKinley. He had no taste for 
fishing or hunting in after-life, although he 
engaged in these sports when a boy. He en- 
joyed the saddle and was a good rider, and 
often would he be seen on the outskirts of 
Washington on horseback, accompanied by a 
member of his Cabinet. 

He was not a brilliant man like Webster, 
nor had he the rugged strength or humor of 
Lincoln; but it is said that ''he rarely spoke 
an idle or foolish word." He did not show 
any real native wit; he left us no real anec- 
dotes such as Lincoln, but he has left behind 
him the record of a great career, a career which 
will shine with more lustre as time advances. 
William McKinley was a man, he was human 
like the rest of mankind, and he made mis- 
takes like every one. His judgment was not 
infallible, but he was a man possessed of more 



144 William McKinley 

than the average of patience, of goodness, of 
fortitude and of fidelity to duty. He believed 
that life was all too short to treasure up any 
animosities toward his fellow-men. He be- 
lieved in the martyred words, ^'With malice 
toward none, with charity for all." 

Sensitive to criticism, yet no one overheard 
him speak unkindly about any one. He never 
consciously wronged a fellow-being. He 
would turn from the cares of State to give a 
flower to a little child or to say a kindly word 
to some visitor for whom he could do no more. 
His beginning was that of the average Ameri- 
can bey, and he won every step of his noble 
and brilliant career because he was a true, 
patriotic, kind and courageous man. No mat- 
ter what came up in his official duties, he al- 
ways remained true to his character and con- 
victions as a Christian gentleman. He was so 
upright in nature, so tolerant in temper, so 
grand in bearing and so kind and considerate 
of others, that he proved by his acts and words 
that "the bravest are the tenderest, the loving 
are the daring." In regard to this side of his 
character, Mark Hanna has written of his 
friend : 

*'He seems to have met every emergency and 
the unusual problems and annoying complica- 
tions of the times in a masterful way. These 
conditions furnished the opportunity for him 
to demonstrate his enormous talent and ability 



A Biographical Study T45 

for successfully solving every problem, rising 
to the full measure of every situation and over- 
coming all obstacles." And he goes on to say 
that: "In all those thirty years of close rela- 
tions I never heard him utter one word of what 
I would call resentment, tinged with bitterness, 
toward any living person." This was again 
reflected in the story of the assassination told 
by Mr. Milburn, who said that he could ''never 
forget the picture in the expression of his coun- 
tenance as he glanced toward the dastard as- 
sassin. In his eyes read the words as plain 
as language could express it, *Why should you 
do this?' And then, when the assassin was 
hurled to the ground when the fury and indig- 
nation of the people had begun to assert it- 
self, he said, with almost saintly compassion, 
'Don't let them hurt him.' I know of noth- 
ing in all history that can compare with the 
splendid climax and enduring of this noble 
life." 

William McKinley consecrated his whole 
career to his country and his fellow-men. He 
often said that he got more out of people by 
meeting them than they got out of him. Mc- 
Kinley was very proud of the bronze button 
of the G. A. R. 

Edward Stratemeyer, in his "Boy's Life of 
McKinley," relates the following story: 
"One day an old Grand Army man presented 
himself at the door of the White House and 



146 William McKinley 

asked to see the President. The doorkeeper 
said, He cannot receive you, sir ; he has called 
a Cabinet meeting for 10 o'clock, and it is now 
five minutes of ten/ 'But he told me I could 
come and see him,* responded the old soldier. 
*When did he tell you?' 'About six months 
ago, when he was in our town in Ohio.' 'Oh, 
well, you had better come in when he receives 
visitors.' 'I can't come in then,' said the man, 
with tears in his eyes. 'I'm going back home 
this afternoon. Can't you please take in my 
name to him?' After some hesitation, the old 
soldier's name was taken in to the President, 
who was busy with some important public doc- 
ument. After waiting in the hallway for a 
moment or two the old veteran saw the Presi- 
dent coming toward him with outstretched 
hands. 'I am glad to see you, Sergeant,' he 
said, calling him by name. 'Come in and tell 
me how you have been.' He led him into a 
side apartment, where they could talk without 
interruption. Here the soldier was offered a 
chair and a cigar, and the President asked him 
all about his family, his brother who had gone 
to California, and a number of other personal 
affairs. He spent some time with him. After 
the old veteran had left the White House he 
said: 'e's a gentleman, every inch of him/ 
and in speaking of his visit later to his friends 
he said: 'I thought the interview was going 
to be downright straight-laced ; but I soon got 



O ~ 




A Biographical Study M7 



that knocked out of me. He talked to me like 
a brother, and he hasn't forgotten a one of us, 
even if he is President. He talked to me al- 
most half an hour, and if that Cabinet got to- 
gether it had to wait, that's all.' " 

Those who knew the White House best m 
its relation to the public during the incumbency 
of different Presidents have told many mci- 
dents concerning their chiefs, but for McKm- 
ley they have nothing to relate except kmdly 
acts and genial ways in his dealings with the 

public. . , . . . 

It is said that he left a Cabinet meeting to 
receive the secretary of the Anti-Imperiahst 
Lea^ie when that gentleman visited Washing- 
ton for the first time. It was a very unusual 

courtesy. , . r i i. 

There is another story which has been re- 
lated by Mr. Stratemeyer, of the old colored 
woman who had moved to Washington from 
Ohio just before McKinley became President. 
Her husband had died, and her son, who was 
then out of a position, was the only person 
whom she depended upon for support. Soon 
after McKinley became President she resolved 
to call on him and see if she could not have 
her son given a government position. ^ ^ 

After many attempts to gain admission, for 
no one knew exactly what she wanted as she 
could not make herself understood, she went 
and joined the long line on visitor's day and 



148 William McKinley 

stood for nearly an hour waiting for her turn 
to meet the President of the United States. 
So nervous was she that when she actually 
stood in front of McKinley she could hardly 
raise her hand to greet him, much less say 
what she wanted. In speaking of the occa- 
sion afterwards she remarked : *'I dun stood 
dar jest like a fool. He seemed to be sech a 
big man, I couldn't say nuffin, nohow. He 
looked at me cu'rus like, an' all to once he 
says: *Ain't dis Mammy Tucker?' Den I 
most gasp fo' bref, an' I says : 'Yes, dis is 
Mammy Tucker, Mister Presiden(t,' an' he 
give my hand a hot squeeze an' says 'Glad to 
see you, Mrs. Tucker. I hope you are well!' 
Dat flustered me mightily, but I braces up an' 
I says : Tse putty well, sah, but mighty poor, 
sah — wid de old man gone, an' Washington 
out o' wuk. Wisht Washington cud git some- 
t'ing to do around yeah, sah.' By dat time 
de crowd behin' was pushin' up an' he sayd: 
*Come an' see me to-morrow at 9 o'clock; an' 
den I had to pass on wid everybody a-lookin' 
an' a-starin' at me, 'cause de blessed President 
had stopped to talk to a poor old colored pus- 
son like me.' " 

The next morning at 9 o'clock the old col- 
ored woman was at the AVhite House; the 
President saw her, and gave her some money 
to keep her from distress until her son secured 
a position. Presently the son was given a po- 



A Biographical Study 149 

sition as a cleaner in one of the public build- 
ings, with a salary sufficient for the old mother 
and son to live comfortably. 

The lapse of time will never dim or dull the 
affection which the American people will for- 
ever have for the memory of William McKin- 
ley. His domestic life will ever be a precious 
legacy to our people. His beauty of disposi- 
tion and his unerring tenderness towards his 
wife will be an inspiration to future generations 
and spur men on to higher and nobler endeavor 
for their own and the world's well-being. 

McKinley's career was a remarkable process 
of evolution. Each day of his long training, 
both in Congress and as Governor, revealed 
his intellectual powers and administrative abil- 
ity. 

When the call to the Presidency came he was 
ready to take the command and show his abil- 
ity to govern and be the commander-in-chief. 
For that is what he really was, notwithstand- 
ing his opponents' opinion to the contrary. 

Many have said that McKinley was a yield- 
ing person, without convictions or opinions; 
that he was swayed to and fro at the command 
of such men as Mark Hanna and others, but 
nothing could be more false than such a state- 
ment. It would be truer to say that he tow- 
ered above all others, throughout his term of 
office, "as a mighty oak towers the lesser trees 
of a forest." 



150 William McKinley 

His friends knew his capabilities, and they 
well understood from the time he entered Con- 
gress that he was a coming man. 

At a time when McKinley had to work and 
wait, ten years before he became leader of the 
House of Representatives, James G. Blaine pre- 
dicted most emphatically that he would become 
President of the United States. 

It was a deal harder to take command when 
he came to Washington as President of men 
who had been his commanders when he first 
made his appearance in public life, than it 
would have been if he had come without any 
special acquaintance as President-elect; but he 
soon lived down the familiarity. It has been 
said that his "suaviter et fortiter" was one of 
the secrets of his success in obtaining the chief 
place of his party. 

The President had keen critical faculty, he 
was quick to perceive the "flaw of logic or of 
rhetoric" in another's composition. It is said 
that no paper which was shown to him ever left 
his hands without some revision, either in 
matter or style. Sometimes he would merely 
give suggestions. Again, like Lincoln, his 
keen sense of detection was not so much due 
to his training as it was to his natural sense of 
harmony. During the Spanish War the Pres- 
ident was the real commander-in-chief. Noth- 
ing hardly escaped his notice. No President 
so absolutely directed the fighting forces of the 



A Biographical Study 151 

United States as did William McKinley. He 
was the leader and commander, and he well 
knew that history would hold him responsible 
for the acts of his administration. He felt an 
overwhelming sense of his cares, but he was 
not oppressed by them. He approached them 
with hopeful temperament ; with a spirit due to 
their gravity, and he met them with full con- 
sideration as to his own honor and the honor 
and welfare of the great nation in his care. He 
could think fast and act quickly if it was neces- 
sary, but he held the balance of his intellect 
and was impulsive to the smallest degree. He 
was always desirous like his Secretary of State, 
John Hay, of giving others more than their 
share of the credit in any transaction, when he 
had been the prime mover and the master mind. 
While administering his office, as President, 
he stood firm and with untiring energy he set 
himself to the task of duty. It would often 
be two or three o'clock in the morning before 
he would leave the war room at Washington. 
He held conference with members of his Cabi- 
net and other officials every evening when the 
war was in progress. Those to whom he con- 
sulted with most were Secretary of War, 
Alger, Secretary of the Navy, Long, and Gen- 
eral Corbin, the adjutant-general of the Army. 
The President requested that all orders of a 
military character be submitted to him person- 
ally before being issued and many of them, it 



152 William McKinley 

is said to-day, bear his corrections in pencil. 
But with all these arduous duties which re- 
quired his constant attention, he was as calm 
and tranquil as if he was going through the 
simple and ordinary routine of every day life. 
He was never ruffled or excited on even the 
most trying moments of the contest. Often 
would he be seen in the Telegraph Bureau read- 
ing the messages, sheet by sheet, as they came 
over the wires. 

To show how thoroughly McKinley was in 
command, the following might be cited : 

Colonel Aliller's command sailed from Man- 
ila to Iloilo in December, 1898. General Otis 
reported this fact, and said that the soldiers 
wxre suffering greatly from the transport. The 
message was written on New Year's Day of 
1898, and was as follows: "It is of first im- 
portance that conflict be avoided at this time, 
if possible. Can not Miller get into communi- 
cation with insurgents giving them the Presi- 
dent's Proclamation and informing them of 
the purposes of this Government, that there is 
no other purpose than to give the peace, pros- 
perity and protection in all their civic rights?" 

The President inserted in the dispatch fol- 
lowing the word conflict the phrase : "Brought 
on by you," and amended the concluding lines 
to read, "that its purpose is to give them a good 
Government and security in their personal 
rights." He also added this to the despatch: 



A Biographical Study 153 

"It is most desirable that Miller should hold 
his ground and as health of the soldiers may 
not permit of their remaining on transports, 
could not a landing at some healthful place 
convenient be effected without a conflict?' 

"The report of excited conditions in Manila 
makes it incumbent upon you not to weaken 
your forces at that point." 

Upon the same day word was received from 
General Brooke that the United States flag had 
been raised over the island of Cuba. Secretary 
Alger at once prepared a dispatch of congratu- 
lation. It was as follows: "January ist, 1899. 
Brooke, Major General, the President instructs 
me to send to you and your command his best 
congratulations upon the successful and peace- 
ful turning over of the island of Cuba by the 
Government of Spain to your forces." The 
President corrected the dispatch to read, fol- 
lowing the word "peaceful" "events of the 
day," and by striking out best before congratu- 
lations. The next order we find that President 
McKinley at times named the regiments for 
active service: 

"Washington, D. C, General Corbin. If we 
need more troops for Manila after the force 
now at S. F. has gone, I direct that you will 
order the 12th N. Y. Col, Leonard, Comdg. 
August nth, 1898. 

William McKinley." 



154 William McKinley 

William McKinley saw more clearly than 
the Generals in the fields the disastrous effect 
of allowing the evacuation of Santiago and the 
retreat of the Spanish army from that place. 
He realized that it would greatly encourage the 
Government of Spain; that it would break the 
complete destruction of the Spanish fleet, and 
would naturally affect public sentiment in this 
country as well as in Europe. So the President 
believed that unconditional surrender was the 
only alternative. He felt that to fight was 
better than to concede ; so with unflinching de- 
termination, he stood by his decision. So im- 
mediately after the last battle around Santiago, 
when General Shafter reported to the Adju- 
tant General that the Spanish Commander de- 
sired that his troops be allowed to retain their 
arms, the Secretary of War answered at once 
under the direction of the President, as follows : 

"Executive Mansion, 
Washington, D. C. 
"Major General Shafter: 

"Your dispatch is a surprise to the President 
and me. What you went to Santiago for was 
the Spanish army. If you allow it to evacuate 
with its arms, you must meet it somewhere else. 
This is not war. If the Spanish Commander 
desires to leave the city and its people, let him 
surrender, and we will then discuss the ques- 
tion as to what shall be done with them." 



A Biographical Study 155 

In writing on this subject, Postmaster 
Charles E. Smith has said : "The Spanish prop- 
osition of evacuation was made on July 8th, 
1898. The surrender was yielded on the fif- 
teenth and arranged on the sixteenth. That 
was a week of intense anxiety in the Cabinet 
room. The meetings were frequent and the 
consultations most serious. Every successive 
dispatch was awaited with the deepest expect- 
ancy. The Cabinet was unanimous in sustain- 
ing the President's determination, but, however 
helpful and strengthening this unanimity was 
the decision was and must be his. It was no 
light responsibility to overrule the Generals in 
the field with all the possibilities that were in- 
volved. It required moral courage and resolu- 
tion. The result vindicated the President's 
judgment and firmness and it naturally brought 
great relief and joy to those who had known 
the strain. The dispatches had not been made 
public ; the real issues in the negotiations were 
understood only by those who had participated. 
When on a hot summer evening they gathered 
on the south porch of the White House, to 
mingle their rejoicings, some of them felt that 
the events of the week should be made known 
and that the President should have the credit 
with the country that was justly his. 

''Not a word," he answered. His generous 
and unselfish spirit was unwilling that a single 
leaf shoud be plucked from its well-won laurels 



156 William McKinley 

of his Generals, and not a word of this did 
appear until the official records afterward pub- 
lished disclosed it in part. 

The following order to General Miles was 
written by President McKinley as soon as he 
reached Porto Rico. 

"How many troops will you require for the 
campaign in Porto Rico? After being on the 
ground, do you revise your original figure of 
40,000?" 

The above order shows his personal knowl- 
edge that he possessed in every detail. Shortly 
after the inception of his administration, when 
war clouds were gathering, he used all his 
energy and influence in trying to avert war, but 
when it was thrust upon him, he resolved to 
bring it to a conclusion as soon as possible and 
to this end he bent all his efforts. 

One who was near to the administration in 
those days spoke thus of the President : 

*Tt seemed to me the President hardly 
allowed himself time to eat or sleep in those 
exciting days. He was up by sunrise and I 
known he was often up until after midnight. He 
had a wonderful memory for facts and figures, 
and whenever anything was told him about the 
army or navy affairs, he never forgot it. I re- 
member once something was said about sup- 



A Biographical Study 157 

plies at a certain fort along the coast. Nobody 
seemed to be able to tell what the fort had, 
and they were going to consult some papers, 
when the President spoke up and told exactly 
what the fort had to draw on. Afterward the 
figures were verified by the Secretary of War." 

Of course McKinley was not ignorant of 
military affairs when he came to the Presi- 
dency. His four years spent in the Civil War 
gave him vast experience in the science of war- 
fare, but he was accustomed to consult every 
person in whom he confided and he understood 
military questions, but his quick perceptions, 
combined with is reasoning powers, gave him 
greater knowledge of the right course to pur- 
sue than any of his generals that were on the 
field of action. 

We have thus seen in the foregoing papers 
that William McKinley was not only President 
in name but he was the real commander-in- 
chief. He was glad w^hen the war closed and 
the laurel wreath of victory was placed on the 
fair head of Columbia. It was a war against 
oppression, a war of humanity. He brought 
the moral quality of public action to a higher 
level during his administration, than had 
existed in any period before in our history. 

Although he gloried in the victories which 
were wrought on land and sea, and in the ex- 
tension of our boundaries, yet his greatest sat- 



158 William McKinley 



isfaction rested in the fact that under God, to 
use his reverenljial words, ''the barriers of 
sectionaHsm had finally and completely disap- 
peared during his administration." 

That he computed was the greatest victory, 
that the lines of North and South were no 
more; but a re-united country stood in place 
of a once divided nation. 

The love of the flag was the symbol which 
made it possible to join hands and forget the 
differences of other years. 

''So with an equal splendor, the morning sun 
rays fall, 

With a touch impartially tender on the blos- 
soms blooming for all. 

Under the sod and the dezv, waiting the judg- 
ment day; 

Under the one the Blue, under the other the 
Gray. 

From the silence of the sorrowfid hours, the 
desolate mourners go, 

Lovingly laden zvith flowers alike for the 
friend and the foe 

Under the sod and the dew, waiting the judg- 
ment day; 

Under the roses the Blue, under the lilies the 
Gray. 

Sadly, but not the upbraiding, the generous 
deed was done, 



A Biographical Study 159 

In the storms of the years that are fading no 
braver battle was won 

Under the sod and the dew, waiting the judg- 
ment day; 

Love and tears for the Blue, tears and love for. 
the Gray/' 



CHAPTER VII. 



m'kinley's diplomacy, morals and 



/T 



RELIGION. 

HE peculiar faculty or skill of conduct, 
which is known as tact, is certainly a 
/ •*• rare gift. 

In the every day affairs of life this 
gift is termed tact; in governmental affairs, it 
is known as diplomacy. The employment of 
diplomatic methods has wrought good results 
out of entangled controversies, has averted 
wars, and has been the means whereby treaties 
oi^ peace have been more rapidly enacted. 

I WilHam McKinley possessed rare diplomatic 
slcill. More than most rulers of his day, he un- 
derstood the impulse and sentiments which 
moved mankind; and he acted in accordance 
in dealing with men and measures. He never 
allowed one to go away after a conference feel- 
ing in any way displeased should the inter- 
viewer have failed to receive what he wanted; 
but, rather, he would dismiss him in such a 
manner as to leave the most agreeable im- 
pression. Before long the caller would be think- 
ing how exceedingly kind and courteous the 
President had been to him. Like Lincoln, al- 



A Biographical Study i6i 

though naturally diplomatic, his constant con- 
tact with people widened and enabled him 
to deal, as time went on, more satisfactorily 
with the masses. His faith in American insti- 
tutions, and American people, helped in no 
small degree in discharging the duties and re- 
sponsibilities of his office. His character and 
the influence of his life, swayed the sceptor of 
his power, in shaping and in dealing with the 
problems that confronted him. "If genius he 
had, it was of common sense, enriched by long 
experience and unhindered by fear." 

His training, his wisdom and his kindness of 
heart developed the diplomatic side of his char- 
acter. Now, in regard to McKinley the diplo- 
mat in a national sense, let us see what John 
Hay, the greatest diplomat of his day said of 
McKinley's skill : 

*'In dealing with foreign powers he will take 
rank with the greatest of our diplomatists. It 
was a world of which he had little special 
knowledge before coming to the presidency. 
But his marvelous adaptability was in nothing 
more remarkable than in the firm grasp he im- 
mediately displayed in international relations. 
In preparing for war and in the restoration of 
peace he was alike adroit, courteous and far- 
sighted. When a sudden emergency declared 
itself, as in China, in a state of things of which 
our history furnished no precedent and inter- 
national law no safe and certain precept, he 



1 62 William McKinley 

hesitated not a moment to take the course 
marked out for him by considerations of hu- 
manity and the national interests. Even while 
the legations were fighting for their lives 
against bands of infuriated fanatics, he decided 
that we were at peace with China; and while 
that conclusion did not hinder him from taking 
the most energetic measures to rescue our im- 
perilled citizens, it enabled him to maintain 
close and friendly relations with the wise and 
heroic Viceroys of the South, whose resolute 
stand saved that ancient empire from anarchy 
and spoliation. 

He disposed of every question as it arose 
wath a promptness and clarity of vision that 
astonished his advisers, and he never had occa- 
sion to review a judgment or reverse a decis- 
ion. 

By patience, by firmness, by sheer reasonable- 
ness, he improved our understanding, with all 
the great Powers of the world, and rightly 
gained the blessing which belongs to the peace- 
makers." 

After McKinley came to the Presidency, 
those nearest to him in an official sense, said 
that they could see him grow day by day. He 
possessed the capacity for growth and that was 
the secret of his greatness. 

McKinley, like Lincoln, learned more by his 
close association with the masses and from the 
school of experience than from any other 



A Biographical Study 163 

source. He was a man who sprang from the 
common people and naturally he loved and 
trusted the toiler who earns his daily bread by 
the sweat of his brow. And as Dr. Bristol 
of Washington puts it, *'He believed in well- 
paid labor, well-paid capital and well-paid 
brains." 

Though very tactful, his will power, when he 
believed a thing to be right, was immovable, 
and his associates said that he could say "No," 
as positively as he could say it pleasantly, but 
he preferred the kind to the unkind way of 
dealing with his fellowmen. 

His flexibility and tact always showed them- 
selves at the right time. For he believed in let- 
tmg the people know the policy of the govern- 
ment. He was always honest with himself, 
with his fellows, with is country and with his 
God. And there is nothing more worthy of re- 
spect and reverence in a public official than hon- 
esty and sincerity of purpose. 

His patience was manifested in many ways. 
There is a story told of a manufacturer of 
chemicals which reveals in a marked degree his 
profound patience. 

When the McKinley tariff bill was pending, 
a manufacturer appealed for a hearing to every 
member of the committee, but each in turn re- 
fused him consideration. At last he went to 
McKinley who happened to be the only mem- 
ber of the committee he had not approached, 



CI 

i 



164 William McKinley 

and the Major at once sat down and listened 
attentively for three hours to the man's argu- 
ment, full as it was with technical data. 

This same consideration was always a pre- 
dominant characteristic of his ; it followed him 
to the White House and indeed it was there, 
that it was more noticeable than ever. ''I ran 
into a bank of roses," said a Senator who went 
to the White House for the specific purpose 
to ask the removal of a Cabinet officer and who 
came away smiling without having been suc- 
essful. 

Throughout the Spanish War he was the 
director of our diplomacy, although he praised 
and gave more credit to others than he took 
himself; nevertheless, in reality he was the 
prime mover and promoter. It has been said 
that in McKinley's administration, the achieve- 
ments in diplomacy were more remarkable 
than its achievements on land or sea, and it 
was through this diplomacy guided by the hand 
and brain of William McKinley that the war 
was brought so speedily to an end; and that 
peace was wrought in such a courteous and 
clement a fashion that it achieved for the 
United States a pre-eminent place among the 
nations of the earth. He did not indulge in 
complaining recriminations or in declamations 
of command. But he got things done never- 
theless. Some one has said that: "He cared 
more for real success than for making people 



i 



A Biographical Study 165 

think that he would have it or had won it." 

Charles Emory Smith, Mcl^inley's Post- 
master General, wrote on one occasion that 
"President McKinley was a natural diplomat. 
If he had training it was not in the professional 
school of diplomacy but in the experience of an 
habitual method in all affairs which was essen- 
tially diplomatic. He made sure that the un- 
derlying strength of his case should be its 
right and reason, but no man could excel him 
in the art and force with which it was stated 
or in the persuasiveness with which it was 
urged. He was quick in perception and could 
turn a point with great dexterity. His skill 
in thrust and parry was unsurapssed, and he 
could veil the most resolute determination, with 
the utmost suavity." 

When Cambon suggested that the terms of 
the treaty were harsh, and that the President 
was too severe, McKinley replied with a smile 
that he was spoken of as "amiable" and to a 
degree yielding, and with a quick response 
Cambon answered, "Mr. President, you are .as 
firm as a rock." It was his sagacity and dip- 
lomacy that enabled him to triumph in the 
end. 

It is a fine thing to know a statesman or a 
genius or a scholar or a philosopher, but it is 
a still nobler and grander thing to know a 
man — a true, brave and honest man, and here, 
my readers, we have one personified. For 



1/ 



1 66 William McKinley 

herein lies William McKinley's greatest leg- 
acy to us — that his was one of the most beauti- 
ful characters that has ever adorned public or 
private life. 

It is said that, "he lived a life as nearly 
blameless as that of any public man of our his- 
tory." 

His high ideals, his unwavering loyalty to 
the right, his honesty and his moral attributes 
won for him, not only the affection and love, 
but stamped him as one of the greatest and 
best men of our history. 

It is becoming more and more prevalent in 
this country to make the final mearurement 
not what a man was as a statesman, or soldier 
or lawyer, but what was he as a man? What 
were his sentiments, his thoughts, his abiding 
faith in the cause of humanity, of civilization, 
or of religion. And here is where McKinley 
revealed himself the strongest, namely, in his 
sturdy and upright and Christian manliness. 
His Washington pastor. Dr. Bristol, had this 
to say concerning McKinley, the man, shortly 
after his death at a dinner in New York : "Wil- 
liam McKinley was an ideal character. In 
that high-minded quality of power which we 
call character, and in the honor to which his 
country exalted him, he was the envy of 
kings, the idol of the common people, the model 
and pattern of aspiring youth, and to the 
world's pure womanhood the embodiment and 



y 



A Biographical Study 167 

exemplar of holy love, fidelity, honor and chiv- / 
airy. He was the chevalier Bayard of Ameri- 
can statesmen. No mantle of charity is needed 
to hide from the purest eyes any part of that 
character or career. The mantle of his own 
chaste, unstained and Christian manhood, 
which he wore with such grace among us, he 
has fearlessly worn to the throne of the judg- 
ment of history and to the throne of the judg- 
ment of God." There was always such a gener- 
osity of spirit which attached itself to all his ac- 
tions, that men never wearied in being in his 
company, but rather they were glad to know him 
and be counted one of his friends. His charm- 
ing manner was an inspiration. He never re- 
pulsed people, but rather drew them to him by 
his personal magnetism and sunnyness of dis- 
position. He always wanted to do his duty. 
He regarded that word as did Robert Lee, as 
the "sublimest word," in the English lan- 
guage." 

There are always enough men of intellect 
in politics, but too few who have the courage 
of their convictions and who will stand for the 
right, no matter what the cost. 

Mr. McKinley could read the minds of men 
as easily as he could read the printed page. He 
could perceive the latent genius of a man long 
before others. He took great delight in the 
study of human nature. Some one has said 
*'that he was trustful where he had confidence, 



1 68 William McKinley 

but he was wary and watchful where he had 
doubt or suspicion." 

There are few men in our history of whom it 
can be said that their whole life was an exam- 
ple to their countrymen. But in William Mc- 
Kinley I think all will agree that his greatest 
gift to the world and to humanity was the 
manner in which he lived his life and met his 
death. 

When McKinley was in Congress, there was 
a page in the House, who was a very unruly 
boy. He was a bright little fellow, but very 
impertinent, and was continually concocting 
schemes and putting them in execution. He 
sort of took the initiative and was the leader 
among the pages. 

"This won't do," said one of the Congress- 
men, who had been made the subject of a trick, 
"We must get rid of that boy or he will de- 
moralize all the rest." "That is true, said 
another and after holding a consultation, they 
decided to dismiss the boy. 

The lad had been told, however, that he had 
to go if he did not reform. McKinley had 
taken a real liking to the boy in spite of his 
actions, so he sent for him. The fellow came, 
hanging his head in shame. "You were dis- 
missed, and you know you deserve it," said 
McKinley mildly, "but I want to give you 
another chance. If I speak for you, what will 
you do?" 



A Biographical Study 169 



''Oh, sir, ril do my best!" cried the boy, 
earnestly. "I won't be tricky any more, I'll 
promise you. Just give me another chance." 

McKinley sat down and talked to the boy for 
about an hour, and then said that he would see 
what could be done in the boy's interest. At 
first no one wanted the lad back ; they said he 
would never be better, but McKinley won them 
over to giving the boy a chance. When he 
came back, McKinley watched him continually 
and encouraged him and gave him advice. At 
once, he began to reform, he became a model 
youth, joined the church and comenced to edu- 
cate himself. When William McKinley be- 
came President of the United States that same 
boy, who in his youth was going to ruin, be- 
came a preacher of the Gospel. 

Little deeds, such as that count so much in a 
man's life. They go to make up the qualities 
of greatness in a career. Mr. McKinley's per- 
sonality was charming. His presence was pre- 
possessing. He was dignified, yet kind and 
affable. He looked somewhat like the great 
Napoleon, although a much better looking man 
was he, than the ^Tittle Corporal." He was 
about five feet, seven inches in height, and very 
straight in statue, with a fine, large, intellect- 
ual head. He impressed one as a man of great 
physical and mental power. 

Dr. David J. Hill, Assistant Secretary of 
State under McKinley and now minister to 



170 William McKinley 

the Netherlands, once remarked to a friend 
when Mr. McKinley's personahty was under 
discussion, "that if the Lord had ever breathed 
the breath of Hfe into a more gracious and 
amiable man than Mr. McKinley, he had yet to 
find it out." And Senator Tillman, who once 
declared that McKinley was gradually becom- 
ing a dictator, said afterwards, that in his 
opinion no finer gentleman from George Wash- 
ington's time to the present had ever occupied 
the presidential chair. 

We have thus seen how his morals, his kind- 
ness of heart and his goodness as a man 
blended. Now, let us look on the religious side 
of his character. William McKinley from his 
youth up was a man of God. He was intensely 
religious. On one occasion the President said 
that no man would gain the highest place in the 
gift of his countrymen — the Presidency, unless 
he were a moral and spiritual man; that no 
man would occupy the presidential chair who 
did not believe in the living and true God. 

We know that our Presidents have been 
God-fearing men. That, for example, Wash- 
ington and Lincoln received strength and com- 
fort through the medium of prayer. But I be- 
lieve that the following incidents will bear out 
my contention that of all our Presidents, none 
was a better Christian or considered himself 
more directly under Providential destiny as the 



A Biographical Study 171 

ruler of a great country than William McKin- 
Icy. 

Christianity is based upon the ethics of Holy 
Writ. To be a Christian, one must have the 
spirit, the tone, the temper, the character of 
Christ or else you are none of his. That is 
the final test of Christianity. McKinley once 
stated that his ''belief embraced the Divinity of 
Christ and a recognition of Christianity as the 
mightiest factor in the v^orld's civilization." 

In the November Chautauquan of 190 1, Mr. 
Barton wrote an admirable paper entitled "A 
Christian Gentleman : William McKinley," 
from which I will frequently quote. He says : 
*'I had a conversation with Rev. A. D. Morton, 
under whose preaching the late President was 
converted. He said that McKinley's mother 
and his sister Anna were very' earnest Christ- 
ians. They would not have been satisfied with 
anything else than a definite spiritual experi- 
ence. The fact of his merely joining the 
Church would not have satisfied them, and 
they gave expression to their satisfaction on 
this subject many times. His devoted mother 
was not altogether pleased, however, that he 
did not enter the ministry. She said several 
times that if she could have had her wish Wil- 
liam would have been a Bishop." 

Mr. Barton goes on to say that, "The Rev. 
A. D. Morton (now retired from the ministry, 
and engaged until recently in business in Cleve- 



172 William McKinley 

land) said that he was pastor at Poland, Ohio, 
in 1856, and became quite well acquainted with 
the McKinley family. At that time William 
was attending school, and was a scholar in the 
Sunday-school. A series of revival meetings 
were held during the winter, and among those 
who gathered almost nightly was the Sunday- 
school scholar, who, no doubt, as a result of his 
mother's teaching, was an attentive and 
thoughtful listener. He made a decision, and 
at an evening meeting of young people, arose 
and said: 'I have not done my duty. I have 
sinned. I want co be a Christian, for I believe 
that religion is the best thing in the world. I 
give myself to my Saviour, who has done so 
much for me.' A few evenings after, he gave 
his testimony with others, saying: *I have 
found the pearl of great price and am happy. 
I love God.' 

*'It was related to Rev. C. E. Manchester, 
D.D., the President's Pastor at Canton, Ohio, 
and also a member of his regiment, the Twen- 
ty-third O. V. I., by W. K. Miller, an old resi- 
dent of Canton, who died several years since, 
but who accompanied the politician on most of 
his campaigns, excepting the Presidential 
Campaign. He said : 'Major McKinley is a 
quiet man upon religious subjects, but he is a 
religious man. I have been with him many 
times during all of his campaigns. We have 
frequently attended political meetings, and 



?5 

• C 




A Biographical Study y^ 



banquets, and have often retired at a late hour, 
but I have never known him to go to his bed 
until he had read from his Bible, and had knelt 
in prayer.' " 

It proved that his religion was as dear to 
him as his birthright, when he practiced it dur- 
ing the heat of a political campaign. It was 
not only confined to his early days but was his 
comfort and sweet environment throughout his 
entire life. 

Mr.' Barton goes on by telling of two incidents 
related by Dr. Manchester : "During the first 
campaign for the Presidency, when thousands 
were visiting him at his North Market Street 
home in Canton, a company of a hundred or 
more influential young men from Detroit 
arrived on Sunday, and sent word that they 
would call on him. He replied at once : 'This 
is the Sabbath day, and I cannot receive dele- 
gations, much less would I have you come to 
me with a band of music on the Sabbath. I 
cannot, in any event, see you this morning for 
I must go to church. I attend the First M. E. 
Church, and would advise you to be present.' 
He added that if one or two at a time cared to 
call for a friendly greeting, he had no objec- 
tion. Those young men attended church in a 
body. It is doubtful if any of them ever had a 
stronger appeal to consider the Christian life, 
and not one of them had room for doubt as to 
the reality of the religion of the man who was 



174 William McKinley 

a candidate for the highest office in the land. 
It was not poHtic, for such things are magnified 
into mountains in the heat of the campaign. 
He was a Christian first. He placed the cross 
higher than the flag, which Gen 'Bill' Gibson 
used to say was high enough for the flag, al- 
though he loved it as much as any one. This man 
preferred to be right with God rather than be 
President ; he has told intimate friends that he 
regarded the Presidency as a God-entrusted re- 
sponsibility. The other incident occurred the 
Sunday before he went to Washington to be 
inaugurated. He wished his regular pastor to 
preach, and added that if he, or any other 
preacher, should begin to gush over him, he 
would get up and leave the church. He once 
said, *I like to hear the minister preach a plain, 
simple gospel — Christ and Him Crucified.' 
Appreciation was kindly received by him, but 
he rightly judged that the pulpit was not the 
place for it. The text that day was: 'If any 
man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The 
Lord hath need of them' (Matt. 21 :3). One 
of the hymns sung was No. 602 in the Metho- 
dist collection, the words being written by John 
G. Whittier: 

'7/ may not be our lot to zvield 
The sickle in the ripened Held; 
Nor ours to hear, on summer eves 
The reapers' song among the sheaves. 



A Biographical Study 175 

''Yet where our duty's task is wrought 
In unison with God's great thought, 
The near and future blend in one. 
And what s o'er is willed, is done. 

''And ours the grateful service whence 
Comes, day by day, the recompense ; 
The hope, the trust, the purpose stayed, 
The fountain, and the noonday shade. 

"And were this life the utmost span 
The only end and aim of man. 
Better the toil of fields like these 
Than waking dream and slothful ease. 

"But life, though falling like our grain. 
Like that revives and springs again; 
And, early called, how blest are they 
Who wait in heaven, their harvest day!" 

"Next day when the board of trustees^ called 
upon him, to bid him farewell, he asked as a 
special favor that they give him the copy of the 
book from which he sang the day before, say- 
ing that he had marked that hymn and would 
like to have the book. 

**It was given to him and was carefully pre- 
served. Read now it seems almost prophetic." 

When McKinley was asked one time 
whether he was ever a local preacher, he re- 
marked that he had been everything else — 



176 William McKinley 

Sunday - school superintendent, trustee and 
everything, but somehow, was never a local 
preacher. When he went to Washington, he 
did not take his letter from his church in Can- 
ton, but he never missed attending divine wor- 
ship Sunday morning at Dr. Bristol's Church 
save for once or twice, said Dr. Bristol, during 
the Spanish War. 

When making his canvass for governor of 
Ohio he said : ''I pray to God every day to give 
me strength to do this work, and I believe he 
will do it !" And after his election as President 
he expressea his profound faith in God many 
times. *'Mr. Grosvenor once asked him if he 
was not inflated with so much praise. He re- 
plied : 'I am rather humbled, and pray to God 
to guide my steps aright.' 

''His humility," continues Mr. Barton, "and 
desire for wisdom for the task he undertook is 
also shown by the selection of the scripture at 
his first presidential inauguration. When he 
took the oath of office as President of the 
United States, he placed his lips on these 
words : 'Give me now wisdom and knowledge, 
that I may go out and come in before this 
people; for who can judge this thy people that 
is so great?' 

"Soon after the inauguration the Rev. W. 
\. Morrison of New England, who had been 
one of Mr. McKinley's teabhers when a boy, 
called upon the President. When leaving Mr. 



A Biographical Study 177 

Morrison said : 'You have a great responsibil- 
ity devolving upon you, but the love and confi- 
dence of the American people are behind you/ 
The President replied : *I hope I shall have the 
sympathy and prayers of yourself and all good 
people.' " 

Mrs. McKinley had this to say in an inter- 
view on her journey to California: ''Do you 
know Major McKinley? No one can know 
him, because to appreciate him one must know 
him as I do. And I am not speaking now of 
Major McKinley as the President. I am speak- 
ing of him as my husband. If any one could 
know what it is to have a wife sick, complain- 
ing, always, an invalid for twenty-five years, 
seldom a day well, he knows, and yet never a 
word of unkindness has ever passed his lips. 
He is just the same tender, thoughtful, kind 
gentleman I knew when first he came and 
sought my hand. I know him because I am his 
wife, and it is my proudest pleasure to say this, 
not because he is the President but because he 
is my husband.'' 

Referring again to McKinley, the Christian, 
it is said that he spoke thus to a number of 
ministers and friends who called upon him at 
the White House, and when discussing the 
Philippines : "I walked the floor of the White 
House night after night, until midnight, and I 
am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that 
I went down on my knees and prayed for light 



178 William McKinley 

and guidance more than one night before the 
answer came, but when it came I was satisfied." 
And on that same occasion he said : ''I am a 
Methodist, nothing but a Methodist, a Christ- 
ian and nothing but a Christian, and by the 
blessing of heaven I mean to hve and die, 
please God, in the faith of my mother." 

He was always very reverent and prompt in 
recognizing the guiding hand and omnipotent 
power of Divine Providence. Again and again 
— in his state papers, his letters and formal ad- 
dresses —we find him quoting from the Holy 
Scriptures. Upon returning home from church 
and on week days as well, he would often be 
humming hymns to himself. 

On Sunday afternoons when he was in Con- 
gress and also when President, he would invite 
all his guests to come in the music room and 
there they would participate in singing church 
hymns. 

It can be said most emphatically that his 
supremely religious life made him an ideal 
President and placed him on a plane with 
Washington and Lincoln, whose religious 
views are so well known. 

An eminent churchman has said: "Religion 
is the stronger in America to-day for William 
McKinley's life and death." To a neighbor, 
who regretted his departure from Buffalo, he 
said before leaving Canton. "If anything hap- 



^ Biographical Study 179 

pens to me, I want you to know that I am pre- 
pared to meet my God." 

We recall the words in part of President 
McKinley which were delivered in San Fran- 
cisco on his last tour to the Pacific coast. It 
was delivered at an impromptu reception given 
him by the Epworth League and Christian En- 
deavor Society at the California Street Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church : 

*'It gives me great pleasure on this, the last 
evening of my stay in your hospital city, to 
meet with the young men and the young women 
of the Epworth League and the Christian En- 
deavor, and the union of the Baptist Church 
and the Christian young people generally who 
have dedicated themselves to the holy cause of 
Christian teaching. I congratulate you that 
you are to be the host of the great international 
Epworth League Convention, to be held in 
your city in the month of July, for the success 
of which you have my best wishes. I congrat- 
ulate you upon the noble work in which you are 
engaged, and the great results which have fol- 
lowed your efforts. He who serves the Master 
best, serves man best, and he who serves truth 
serves civilization. There is nothing that lasts 
so long or wears so well and is of such inesti- 
mable advantage to the possessor as high char- 
acter and an upright life, and that is what you 
teach by example and by instruction. And 
when you are serving man by helping him to 



i8o William McKinley 

be better and nobler, you are serving your 
country. I do not know whether it is true that 
every man is the architect of his own future, 
but surely every man is the architect of his own 
character, and he is the builder of his own 
character. It is what he makes it, and it is 
growing all the time easier both to do right 
and to be right." 

On the day of President McKinley's funeral, 
there were a few moments when everything as 
nearly as possible became silent. Electric wires 
were still, trains ceased to move and people 
with uncovered heads stood silent in the streets. 
Never was such a scene witnesed before in 
America. 

Dr. Iglehart in speaking of this incident says 
that, 'There is a legend that at the birth of 
Jesus Christ everything stopped still. That 
night birds flying in the mid-air became mo- 
tionless, that the shepherd reaching his crook 
toward the sheep held it still; that people eat- 
ing a meal held their hands midway between 
the dish and the mouth, and that everyone 
awake had a sudden inclination to be still. His- 
torically this legend is very far from the truth, 
for there was almost nothing that the world 
thought less about, and paid less attention to, 
than the Babe that was born in Bethlehem, and 
yet in a deeper sense the fiction was fact. The 
world did stop still at the birth of the Babe and 
began its thoughts and acts anew from the 



I 



'A Biographical Study i8i 

impulse of His life and love. And whatever it 
has of goodness or greatness to-day, it has de- 
rived from Him. 

It was largely because William McKinley 
took this Babe of Bethlehem as his model, his 
Master and his Saviour ; because he was Christ- 
like in his spirit and his life that the people 
of America stopped still to think and to mourn 
when he was laid in the tomb." 

In his last public speech, but a few hours 
before he was stricken down by the assassin, 
he had raised his hand in benediction over his 
people and had closed that speech by saying : 

*'Our earnest prayer is that God will gra- 
ciously vouchsafe prosperity, happiness, and 
peace to all our neighbors, and like blessings 
to all the people and powers of earth." 

His beautiful Christian faith and his readi- 
ness to leave this world when he found it was 
the will of Providence, was exemplified in his 
almost sublime death, murmuring with his la- 
test breath those incomparably touching 
words: ''Nearer, My God To Thee." What- 
ever else history may say of William McKin- 
ley, one thing we know, and that is, that the 
crown of his life which set him apart from all 
other American statesmen, was his Christian 
character, his beautiful life exemplifying it, 
and his unwavering devotion to the cherished 
wife of his youth. 

He lived and died an Am.erican. He also 



1 82 William McKinley 

lived and died a Christian and his parting 
words will be remembered, long after the gen- 
erations coincident with his time, shall have 
been but a memory. "Good-bye, all. It is 
God's way. His will, not ours, be done." 

May the inspiration of his life and the glory 
of his death live on down through the ages, 
strengthening the hopes and the aspirations of 
man. And may the deep and beneficent influ- 
ence on the nation's history and on the whole 
world's progress, which he spread so lavishly 
anvi so sweetly, never perish from the earth 
while time and life shall last. 



The End. 



THE Mckinley chronology 



Born at Niles, Trumbull County, Ohio, January 29, 

1843. 
Became a student at the district school at Niles, 1849. 
Removed to Poland, Mahoning County, Ohio, 1852. 
Entered the Union Seminary of Poland, 1852. 
Joined the Methodist Episcopal Church of Poland, 

1859. 
Entered Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, 

i860. 
Left college on account of illness and same year taught 

at the Kerr District School near Poland, i860. 
Assistant Postmaster in the Poland Post Office, 1861. 
Enlisted as a private in Company E of the Twenty- 
third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, June 11, 1861. 
Promoted to commissary sergeant, April 15, 1862. 
Promoted to first lieutenant, September 24, 1862. 
Promoted to second lieutenant, February 7, 1863. 
Promoted to captain of Company G, July 25, 1864. 
First vote for president cast, while on march, for Abra- 
ham Lincoln, October 11, 1864. 
Commissioned major by brevet in the Volunteer United 

States Army by President Lincoln, March 13, 

1865. 
Mustered out of army, July 26, 1865. 
Entered the Albany Law School, 1866. 
Admitted to the Bar at Warren, Ohio, in March, 1867. 
Elected Prosecuting Attorney, 1869. 
Married January 25, 1871. 
Elected to Congress, 1876. 
Re-elected to Congress, 1878, 1880, 1882, 1884, 1880, 

1888. 



APR 2Q mi 



M KINLEY CHRONOLOGY 



Delegate-at-Large, Chicago Convention, 1888. 
Defeated for Congress, 1890. 
Elected Governor of Ohio, November 3, 1891. 
Delegate to Minneapolis Convention, 1892. 
Re-elected Governor of Ohio. 1893. 
Nominated for President, June 18, 1896. 
Elected President, November 3, 1896. 
Inaugurated President, March 4, 1897. 
Renominated President, June 21, 1900. 
Re-elected President, November 6, 1900. 
Second inauguration, March 4, 1901. 
Assassinated, September 6, 1901, 

Died at the Milburn House, Buffalo, New York, at 
2.15 A. M., September 14. IQOI. 









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